I found 42 horses
hidden amidst the brush/strokes
of your painting
your hair
your counterpane
your conversation
A lizard lay breathless
near the window
as I blew smoke
mingling with
the cool mint
exterior of your lips, teeth &tongue.
Admittedly
I never did sit
with the grownups
My age ranged
from two to 55
An experience
leftover from a
wringer washer & towel dry-
An idyllic fabrication
torn up/
collaged into the
nursery hall closet
{its door is permanently closed}
Milky perfume smells
cultured pearls
& wisdom better left unopened/
resting on the lower left shelf
A letter bearer brought
sounds of grief/
an upscale warning:
"Don't touch it!
Is it dead?"
A rack of wing flutters
Worn like an epaulet
shouldered with responsibility/
A musket ball & Gabriel's personality
a civic inspiration
The wave curled
looming overhead
an umbrella spray
an aquanet
a hermit crab
a holy ghost
a dust mite/or he might not
How mighty the mouse strays
From his insistent cubby hole
warm like velvet
sleek like snakeskin
Teeth foam like one's
alligator tail or
two city towers.
I was talking with Natalie
on the cell phone
on the porch swing
at the beach
drinking red wine
obeying a commandment or two
"What is your earliest journalistic experience?"
a query/there were two/2 responses:
when my sister was seven and in the second grade
someone stabbed her palm with a pencil and
the point remains/
and I loved the rich illustrations in
little black sambo
a green coat
red trousers
& purple shoes/
Yeah, me too, I said over the wireless
When my little sister was in the 2nd grade
and was 7
Someone stabbed her with a sharpened lead pencil
above her left upper lip
below the left nostril
leaving a permanent pale blue beauty mark
on her milky skin
and a blue vein throbbed insistently
above the wide wan forehead/
Aunt Nancy read to me the story of
Little Black Sambo
over & over again
until the tiger pancakes were ready
then we had breakfast/
We laughed all the way
from the Tybee Coast
to Santa Fe
then wishing
we were in a car together
going someplace else
but not running
out of
gas. |
