May 9, 2009

It's strange how just now
I was so determined to
get pen and paper, so intent
on finding tools for writing,
that I've forgotten what I
deemed so necessary to say.

Now to keep the pen occupied,
I'm drawing spirals on the paper.
My hand is sideways on the page,
lying motionless on the little
blue tracks that refuse to warn me
of the little blue train approaching.

May 8, 2009

My list of things to do
is wide but not deep,

Drink milk and eat eggs,
stretch like a cat before rising,

Dance in an otherwise empty elevator,
balance a spoon on my nose

Wave at the shaking trees,
and lay open faced to the noonday sun.

My list of things to do
is wide but not deep.

My list of things to be, however,
is thin but cuts down to this planet's boiling heart.

May 7, 2009

A Final Request

And when they close
the book on me
and set it on a high shelf
between Petrarch and Poe,

let them say it was wrong,
let them say it was shocking,
let them say it appalled even
the most diplomatic of palates,

just hold their tongues
and bind their lips
before they dare say
it wasn't worth the read.

May 6, 2009

A gaggle I understand,
A murder, I hesitantly accept,
A brood, a school, a crash,
I hear them without concern.

But a parliament, a congress...

There is something about those birds holding court,
Their twisting necks and sharpened beaks pecking out legislation,
That makes my snake self quiver.

May 5, 2009

there are bees
in my kitchen
bright flashes
of light and sound

and when I wake
they swarm me
and when I sleep
they haunt me

and in their most
regal of moments
they genuflect
and call me queen

their sticky knees bent
a trembling field
a humming carpet upon which
I dare not walk.

May 4, 2009

On Turning 30

And here I am
straight-legged and
broad-shouldered,
my body finally
filling in this skin.

My voice no longer
percholating in the
little cauldron of my throat.
My hair being
pulled back like a
slow scalping.

And here I am
known and unknown,
a cool summer day
with a wind that
carries fall on its back.

And I am not afraid,
And I am not bewildered,
And I am not anxious.

I am rising, as if
from a light sleep,
realizing that the
world will not wait
as I slumber and stretch.

And if I want the crown,
I cannot wait for the king to die,
And if I want the crown,
I cannot wait for the king to die,
And if I want the king to die,
I cannot wait for the king to die.

I must enter his guarded chambers
awake him and give him his sword,
then tell only the priests that
the handle was poisoned.