I have a lot of homework I need to get done now, so I'll just post a couple older poems of mine that a lot of you probably haven't read. Have a great monday:
living on the farm
After Jack Gilbert’s “Scheming in the Snow”
there is a time after what comes after
being young, and a time when she thinks
that she should have known better, been prouder,
been more careful. remembering the shoes,
shiny black, making the noise which only patent-leather
can make. remembering the day she went shopping
with her weathered mother of eight.
paying with the green income of beans and corn.
the shoes gripped tightly in her small hands,
not unaware of the unusual luxury or the love they proved.
moments later, after finishing her small lunch and
returning to the farm, she noticed her empty hand
and thought of the stool that had supported her shoes at noon.
when she confessed, heartbroken and tears running
down her young face, her mother said,
“don’t cry. I’ll get you something better.”
After Jack Gilbert’s “Scheming in the Snow”
there is a time after what comes after
being young, and a time when she thinks
that she should have known better, been prouder,
been more careful. remembering the shoes,
shiny black, making the noise which only patent-leather
can make. remembering the day she went shopping
with her weathered mother of eight.
paying with the green income of beans and corn.
the shoes gripped tightly in her small hands,
not unaware of the unusual luxury or the love they proved.
moments later, after finishing her small lunch and
returning to the farm, she noticed her empty hand
and thought of the stool that had supported her shoes at noon.
when she confessed, heartbroken and tears running
down her young face, her mother said,
“don’t cry. I’ll get you something better.”
An Ordinary Day in Corporate
(after Charles Wright)
Under the skyscrapers, the business suits walk
Over the earth that is no more
Liability, commerce, inflation
Words caught between flashing streetlights,
unlike the sounds of silence
Whose sight we’ve lost and let scream away.
Meanwhile, the offices
Fidget about their business,
Unconcerned with personalities,
Downpour from the corporate wheel,
families combustible.
In the thin marriages—
Love, we think, marvelous love, everything starts in love.
Or so they say. We like to think so
Ourselves, feeling the business
Ladder into our blood stream
A bit more each year,
Tasting the lust on our tongues,
Watching the children oblivious,
Hearing their chant, come play daddy, come play…
(after Charles Wright)
Under the skyscrapers, the business suits walk
Over the earth that is no more
Liability, commerce, inflation
Words caught between flashing streetlights,
unlike the sounds of silence
Whose sight we’ve lost and let scream away.
Meanwhile, the offices
Fidget about their business,
Unconcerned with personalities,
Downpour from the corporate wheel,
families combustible.
In the thin marriages—
Love, we think, marvelous love, everything starts in love.
Or so they say. We like to think so
Ourselves, feeling the business
Ladder into our blood stream
A bit more each year,
Tasting the lust on our tongues,
Watching the children oblivious,
Hearing their chant, come play daddy, come play…
sometimes i wonder
about us
about you
about this thing that has become
us
wonder if it can be forever
wonder if it can
be
sometimes i think that maybe
tomorrow
you will really see
me
that tomorrow you will see
this thing i carry
this habit i can’t break
this word i always use
this obsession i can’t undo
sometimes i wonder if tomorrow
will be the only tomorrow
i have with you
if yesterday’s tomorrow is the
last today
but then all i can think of
all i can do
all i can hear
all i can breathe
is you
and this love
simultaneously
youandlove
and tomorrow fades into yesterday
and my wondering becomes
youandlove
and as your words touch my ear
and your hand the small of my back
youandlove
simultaneously
and i surrender to it
without
tomorrow
on my mind
1 comment:
I love your poem about the lost shoes - that story has always broken my heart.
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