Archive for December, 2009

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End of the Year Memo

The information was up to the minute.
The information was unreliable.
The information made us ravenous,
For more information.

The information had no effect
On sunlight scattered like shards
Of happiness across the rippled river.

December dawn cloud
My puffy rose friend
I’m glad I was up to see you.

A man made of grass blew by
The kitchen window while I
Angrily ate cold fish from a dish
In the sink and anticipated
The pies I had to bake.

Wondering about the import of what I had experienced—what to do?—I waited on the pier for my party clothes. I so wanted those images and feelings to signify something about my days at the farm/school/clinic.

Where the Rubble Meets the Road

We couldn’t get to Uncle Johnny’s because a boulder was in the way, so detoured through a farmyard where the dogs were as cute as any I’d seen—big woolly heads like cartoon sheep. When I couldn’t drive the car I pushed it in front of me like a baby stroller. Easy.

Tangents turn vinegar,
Said the smiling singer.
Try to tie a string across a pond.

Crouched over in the camping tent, teenage Pete was awkwardly pulling on his swimsuit when the backyard was invaded by a hostile band of bearded medieval warriors. Thinking quickly, he defused the situation by launching into a spirited rendition of the Beatles’ “Fixing A Hole.” The brutes were dumbstruck and soon joined in the song.

Swim a black paint pool.
Emerge white as sky.
Monitor the reservoir of ink.

I ate the strychnine apple while waiting for the next attack. Set up all my dolls on a corner of my desk. Studied the spines of the books on the shelf and decided it was time.

Embarrassed egg on his face,
Arms full of sweaters and a hanging plant,
He pulled pieces of a ring from his skin.

After our host, an aging glamrocker, had snaked an electrical cord around the hall, he led an edit meeting. Cousin Siri pitched a return to the tainted meat in the tropical war zone—green flesh in the frying pan.

Fungi grew from the small of his back,
Morel mushrooms (Morchella) and
Alder Bracket (Inonotus radiatus).

I twirled my special curve with the nasty inside-out break. I thought it was a kingfisher at its work, but as our boat drew closer the bird became a bald eagle rushing like a dolphin just beneath the surface.

Dark stillness of the river
Before rain. Drove a roadster up
The narrow winding stairs.

Aunt Kaye asked for a blanket and a broom and surprised us with her clowning camel impersonation. She fashioned a portrait of Goethe from a fried egg and warned that bugs would bite if we went barefoot on the old boat.

Everybody understood the urge to draw
A satisfying conclusion, yet
Who said you had to say good-by?

Recent Comments

  • Senia: It seems we have similar things on our writing mind. I enjoyed the basement ceiling metaphor, and the pacing...
  • Ryan: Thanks for the double header! I like the way “Notice” presents death, a fairly loaded subject (at...
  • Mike: This is really lovely: Through a curlicued labyrinth of impending Trains at distant stations
  • Poetry: Very nice poem.
  • PD: Love this: The carpenters made no big deal The souls of the dead still breathed I heard them whistling to me Over...

 

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