fine poetry to turn your world around
Business District circa 1982Praise the Cornet five-and-dime,Rodgers variety for ribbon by the foot.Praise the clerk with a ’50s bouffantand red-purple handslike my hands now.Praise the mortuary up the street,Direct Cremation $300—all the days I drove by that sign.Praise Inside Scoop, mocha fudgeice cream. Praise Rexall Drugs,sleepy Muzak, greeting cardsI spent too long picking out.Praise Bits […]
Time’s Wingèd Chariot ~with thanks to Andrew MarvellHad we but world enough and time, chocolate would be our only crime. We’d sit beneath the cacao tree, shaded by its fragrant leaves. Wait four years or more while I’d adore your lips,your forehead, silken skinuntil the farmers rapped the podson rock or tree, split them, scooped […]
SpectatorsIt’s the coldest winter in 15 years, TV’s weather guy tells, and cold seems to have so many meanings. I use this news to touch your face,kiss your chilly nose. Our iPhone app says its 45 but “feels like” 35. We ask each other why the “feels like” is never warmer. We’re Floridianswearing socks, long-sleeved […]
HORSES IN THE GULLY —After the painting, “All the Tired Horses in the Sun,” by A.C. CanonThe artist says they’re tired,maybe because they’re in a gully,each direction a climb no discernible road. Whyis one of the horses red, the sky orange? Why are the spots on the red horse blotchylike the white spots in the […]
