Friday, July 31, 2009

Soap Bubbles

I am tired of the world
all it's blue and green ways
filled with the have's
walking on the have not's
children with curious eyes
behind pulled curtains
peek out to find their place
while the adults play
at knowing.

Still
so many unpopped bubbles float
up from the dirty laundry -

summer rain on a tin roof
a smitten girl filled with smile
swirl of tadpoles in a puddle
sink of sponge moss on the sole
to lie in bed at noon knowing
everyone is scurrying to get
everything done that doesn't
need doing once it all begins
to end.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Furaden

Why do people poison lions?

They eat the cattle

The indigenous would kill

a lion

through rite of passage

to become a Man

and protect the cattle

now they are Lion Guardians

but now nobody new

understands poison danger

tradition and rite

and lions die

as do we.

The Box

I've run over it three times
it's sides unfolded exposing
cardboard emptiness -
a bit of tissue off to the side
that once held a gift.

Twice now, the box has caught
dragged along under the car
like a kid tailgating on an icey
winter street, but this time
there is no laughter.

I'm sure that little box has sat
there defiantly for over a week
ever since it spilled out from
one of the party bags
early last Sunday morning.

It doesn't matter if it disintegrates
fades or blows away. I won't pick
it up just as I won't clean the side-
board, hang up my clothes
or fix my fallen hem with anything

but a safety pin. Every little trail
leaves some evidence that I exist.
Drawers stuffed with poems, hair
in the sink, a cup rimmed with lip gloss.
Feel free to curse me when I am gone.

I am not home.
I am not home.
I have never been home.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

elephants

in captivity live ninety
percent of their lives
tails joined in chains

Tomrrow, the Wind

An angel lies bent in the grass
hands folded across an oxidized chest
eyes painted shut to the chance
of being saved

amidst yellow daisies a broken spade
a pail of dying weeds
a sparrow feather in a footprint
in the garden at night

solar lights begin to share the gather
of their suns one by one they blink
will wink forever until there is no more
bright to fill flattened pockets with shine

A woman sits awkwardly, hands folded
across the orange of her dress
sweating into the day
sky blue begins to bundle up the clouds

trundling towards tomorrow -
the wind

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

What Light Remains in Absence

What Light Remains In the Absence
by Eoin Galvin

It is not the sound of the lights turning off
but the full silence of you and I at home,
not the shape of you in my arms
but the weight of you asleep,
not the bright, terrifying joy,
the burn and breech of us,
but what light remains in the absence
who I have become of us.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

My Grandfather, Poplar Point

Lament

Show me the worm 
caught in a bird's beak
or the squirrel still twitching 
in the middle of the road 
while bloody tires 
revolve someone home -

I will show you the worm 
deep at work in the dirt
of a long abandoned farm
turning in continuance
of softening, cultivating
a soldier of the earth oblivious
to anything remotely human

or that the farm is empty, run -
down to nothing but old boards
license plates still nailed onto 
onto an old garage.   And you wonder
what the purpose is, why the farm
once stood proud - windows 
gleaming with fresh eyes

full with the thrill of reflection
green fields wet with dawn

PJ Harvey - One Line

Do you remember the first kiss?
Stars shooting across the sky
To come to such a place as this
You never left my mind

I'm watching from the wall
As in the streets we fight
This world all gone to war
All I need is you tonight

And I draw a line
To your heart today
'To your heart from mine
A line to keep us safe'

All through the rising sun
All through the circling years
You were the only one
Who could have brought me here

And I draw a line
To your heart today
'To your heart from mine
A line to keep us safe'

Monday, July 6, 2009

Super Slipper

Such things -
rolling through life
but not like when I was a kid
tumbling sideways down 
some grassy hill laughing
not a care in the world
in my little blue trench coat
eyes full of what was always
right there in front of me

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Kim & Deb

Hope

Beats in our hearts
Her laughter
Reflected in our eyes

And her smile
Part of these lips
Will always be



Hope, Kim, Deb

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Caught at 4:51

When it happened everything went
quiet and soft, as if to make her stop
and listen to the mute sun 
warming through brown silk 
printed large with white roses
blooming them a little fuller.

Nothing extraordinary in the passing
from one moment to the next - it all
happened in a click of life's finger snap
shifting her perspective slightly left
to a place where fences no longer stood.
A Mourning Dove trilled twice

as the wind moved a little quicker
tousling through her hair, intent 
on racing messages through the grass.
Something instinctive to that moment
drilled down tapping into her

with swift invisibility and she sprung
water over edges until she knew 
this time she was fully in love
with the music that had just played 
him into her.



I Crave Your Mouth

by Pablo Neruda

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.

Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.

Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day

I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.


I hunger for your sleek laugh,

your hands the color of a savage harvest,

hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,

I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

 

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,

the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,

I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

 

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,

hunting for you, for your hot heart,

like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Cat Toss

I'm throwing all of my cats to the wind
flying fur, claws, teeth and bowls of food
water and everything that I thought 
they needed to survive.

Later on, tonight, all of my cats
will face off against one rattlesnake.
Tomorrow I will once again
face what I detest
up against a wall I may ask for 
one cigarette and a final meal -

My cats will soon learn -
it's all about survival.

- Debbie Calverley