Trading in Impulses
If you were a beacon where would you sit? In the crack of a boulder, the arc of a shoulder? It’s not like a window display.
Retail’s large panes, merchandise set aside from everyday use, no want of a museum, theater curtains that gape.
Décollage shimmering a wickedly sharp plan hatched to whisper what you [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Read Write Poem’
working with words
Surprised by Bodies
Surprised by Bodies
Tell me why the moon is always a surprise,
why the wind sells its secrets under
the guise of some shell game that dupes
meteors but never the big trees. Or maybe
I got that backwards. It is the space
travelers who flagrantly pierce an abiding code,
one that wills gravity to be pulled off center,
only to send it [...]
How to Tie a Stimulator redoux
How to Tie a Yellow Stimulator*
Attach longing to a shiny hook and wind it
back to the bend of your elbow. Tie in a small
bunch of curly hair so that the tail
is as long as the open mouth is wide. Moisten.
(Look at the wet beads and notice how they form
a tumble in your between that you’ll [...]
Dried Fruit
Dried Fruit
My pomegranates hide
Hard gems float in ruby flesh
absorbed by this body
a pouch tender to any touch
* * *
It’s all I got this week. A small poem in response to the Read Write Image Prompt. Find other responses here.
Photo credits to Nasos3 with thanks!
The Occasioned Meal
The Occasioned Meal
It wasn’t that I was in from way out of town,
(– A thousand miles? It’s nice you could come visit.)
Or that we sat around a too crowded kitchen table,
generations: Grandmother, second cousin, thirds,
tearing up to recall men gone long, all. A first.
Or that it would be the last I witnessed
Mary Nell or Willie [...]
Teh Thear-ee Ov Hatz
TEH THEAR-EE OV HATZ
It hard even 2 admit dis thear-ee ov hatz, dat 2 wer
Teh faithles wan brimmd tite-lee ovar teh eyez—
Teh featherlez an dizkreete wan, hat wif seekret koad
Dat sez, 2 spoil teh chil’ iz 2 fattuhn teh snake—
2 wear dat hat (imperfekt-lee as carowz carown) agenzt teh sun
Iz 2 bear teh runez ov [...]
A Body of Work #2
A Body of Work #2
I have Grandmother’s fingernails.
The last time I saw her hands
They were folded on top of her
Chest, unnatural, a handkerchief
Set decoration, laced and clean,
Covered whatever glue kept
Them peaceful. Concealed
Gnarled joints sculpted by pain.
The last time I held her hand
I filed her long nails so she could
Grasp a fork, a spoon, the remote
A [...]
The Invisible Hand and body checks
The Invisible Hand
Pushes levers, works the spin
Like carnies at the mall.
Bodies are blurs standing
Still or in play in ways
I could never master.
I learn by example, follow
The moves of those just
Ahead. In this room I can’t
Keep up with the boys, they
Maneuver and slam, body check
My marker, let me know whose
In charge, then smile, as if
They were [...]
vice versa: the self as memory
On the Bay of Three Sister Saints off the Yucatan Peninsula, January 2000
Swirls beckon, pathed around plastic
Shells. Air stings a little, sweet
Musky flavors of an old personal
Flotation device pressed against
My chest as if it were a life jacket.
Not as ripe as it could be, but old
Salted sweat, others’ pungent
Memories kayak a flat or a stormy
Caribbean [...]
