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{ Monthly Archives } September 2009

Mid-afternoon

Mid-afternoon and the world pauses; sure nobody is looking, she loosens her girdle and sighs: The afternoon breeze; neither fresh nor cool, moves. The birds doze; the dogs wash; The old folks dream of morning, creaking in wicker. Mid-afternoon and the world pauses; the cusp of pendulum between late lunch and early dinner, the air [...]

Kitchen therapy

I recover in the kitchen, slowly rising.  I sift and taste, and feel the acrid tang of humble raising agents. I knead and yield stiff butter dough between cracked and tired knuckles. A palindrome massage as I coax myself into a shape more pliant and roundly soft. With a twitchy thumb I press a dozen [...]

Fat cat

Warm and pliable, weighted beast, A pool of indulgent, thickened ease. Plushly, densely, thickly furred, Decadent instrument of purrs. Pendulum-puddled in a patient pose, Waiting heavily on pillow toes, Stretched out, vibrating contented, Ruched Russian fur, rich-ornamented.

Adrift

A rift; adrift; A shaft A draft A raft, a craft, adrift. A shift, A shaft, The craft adrift, Refound, refit.

Before the light

There was rain all around, Your warm, steady breath, And the happy grunts of a sleeping dog. Your warm, steady breath A sleeping chorus, There was rain all around. Downstairs, the waking shuffle A house stirring, a kettle boiled, And the happy grunts of a sleeping dog, A house stirring, a kettle boiled, A waking [...]

Whittling

Each day I take a very fine knife; Dulled with sleep, but just a little, And scrape away at some part of my life: I take baby steps to perfection: I whittle. Some lichen grows back every night, Though it easily comes off and shows my progress, And every day I strip off little bites, [...]

Four views from the couch

I. I bury cold feet under the dog, Ignorantly pleased companion, Who senses not that something is wrong, but for once something is right. I am home, we share the couch, She reminds me that this is the life, So I sneeze on her. II. A city of cups and mugs, Curved, avant-garde suburb half-flooded [...]

The blade

She passed the blade across one finger; and raised a shaped arch. Danger and beauty, in one sweet tip, she passed the blade. She passed the blade down the white finger, towards the bitten end. Towards the bitten end, where exams had left their mark. She passed the blade She passed the blade to me [...]

Fused

The wires and the circuits That normally I depend on, Have begun to short-spark And left me a little random. My thought processes are seized And struggle to break out, It borders on the painful And makes my neurons shout. I try to simulate real thought, Through artificial tricks, Guzzling sugar, cakes and coffee, Until [...]

Sick day!

I’m calling today a sick day. I haven’t written a poem and I don’t expect to, but I’m okay with that. Hopefully lyric tomorrow.