Attraction

 WordCrafter word list: Property/ Bizarre / Mercury / Melancholy / Indigo / Light / Languish / Purity / Thirst

Purity may be found

secreted behind that borrowed rib

a little southwest of the heart.

It uses serrated light

from the #39 bus,

its lit numbers visible only to those bleeding.

Mercury stepped on your kindness

and pawned his pride

for three dollars and a rolled bandage.

Melancholy Jane saw it all,

handed the driver a bible

full of indigo blues and lighter fluid,

Said, "Home, James,"

in your voice she had recorded under her tongue

like a password.

I hid purity in my messenger bag,

an inherited property, a ball and chain

made from beer tabs and lipstick.

All I want now is to languish famously,

pull poems out of top hats

and remember the bizarre attraction

you keep by the roadside

for marks and suckers

you turn to perfection on the wheel of your kiss.

_______

Free House Hunter's Guide from Herb West's Second Chance Realty!

1.When buying a new house, do not search via Ouija board.

2. A reputable realtor is key. Avoid any who keep a muddy shovel in the corner of their office. Notice his/her attire. Plague masks or hooded black robes are red flags.

3. Ask about pets. Some homes come with pets included, but inspect cupboards and attics for them before deciding.

4. Landscaping is important. Is the yard tidy and pleasant? Things such as grave stones, bright green industrial by-product bubbling up, or yellow crime tape are hints that the property has not been well maintained. 

5. How many bathrooms are there? Are there bathrooms at all? While outbuildings may lend a certain retro charm, how will you feel about it on a cold winter morning? Inspect indoor pipes and fixtures, if any, for gaping holes, flaking rust, or evidence that thieves have removed the copper. This can be ascertained by examining walls for smashed plaster, large missing sections, and graffiti. These are subtle signs of future trouble.

6. Is the house original, or have additions been added? Is there a mother-in-law apartment, and is someone's mother-in-law currently residing there? Do you think you could get along with her, or is she a total bitch? Would you want to have to bother with bricking or boarding her in? Very few new home buyers consider the inconvenience of police investigations and felony charges while still trying to settle in.

7. Is the exterior protected with aluminum or vinyl siding? Are there gaps where large birds have built elaborate nests? Are there apertures for archers or cannon? Are chimneys constructed of sturdy brick, or hastily applied papier mache? You'll want to know, before closing on a house. 

8. Finally, you know the old maxim: Location, location, location!!! Is the house near, or built on, a bog or nuclear waste dump? (Remember, the only glow you should have is that of a proud new home owner!) Is the house part of a military target range? Inquire as to their hours, national affiliation, and size of ordnance before moving in. You'll be glad you did! Also, check to make sure the property is not being used as a large cat sanctuary, winter grounds for carnies, or as a headquarters for an illegal religious cult.

Happy house hunting! My name is Mitzy MacIntosh, and I'd be delighted to help you find the home of your dreams! Just call Herb West's Second Chance Realty and ask for Mitzy!

_________

for The Sunday Muse #179. 

Dyslexia

 

I caught an echo of my father

in the way you wear your coat

In the way you're not entirely there

but linger on like smoke

I was looking for a thing that's gone

like those pens with tubes of ink

like mucilage or gum erasers

or feeling loved, I think

Now I've freighted you and burdened you 

and slowed you from yourself

with drapery of memory

I should hook and part myself

But all it was, was honor, sir

all it was was need

to make of you a palimpsest

that I could sigh and read.

_______

For Sunday Muse #178, where I am hosting

the image is actor Alden Ehrenreich

Mariana In The Morning

 Mariana in the morning

by Morning's light possessed

all afternoon she walks the cliff's edge

trying to forget.

Mariana by the window

in a yellow aster smock

She knows November brings the end

of all your foolish talk.

And the mermaids come to die

on her lonely rocky shore

they ask her for her anodyne

then ask for nothing more.

Mariana, bride of Sorrow

in Sorrow's cottage kept

She counts the coins the stars deliver

and medicates the debt.

Mariana, in her silence

braids the horses' tails

She knows November brings the ostler

with his shoes and nails.

And the mermaids come to die

on her lonely rocky shore

asking for her anodyne

then asking nothing more.

_______

They Are Marching

 They are marching

where the red flowers bloom

They are marching and sometimes stoop to gather

the white and fallen fragments of the moon

They are sleeping

and dying with the hours

they are sleeping and hallucinating sweetly

white swans and lilies in their bowers

They are falling

where bones turn into pennants

They are falling like the spines of dusty hymnals

where angels count forgetfulness as penance.

Hybrid Perennial

 

He brought her a manuscript made from sidewalks

and evening air.

He had eaten stars, nearly died, fathered a revolution,

all while admiring the lilies in her hair.

She complained of her situation and boredom while drinking

formaldehyde.

He developed a cough, and from the cough

came the man she now lounges beside.

Someone buried the manuscript and where it was buried

roses unfurled.

He fills his pipe with suicide, does not recognize his only child

and the woman smiles, become an ingenue, a cipher, a nattering girl.

______

Cricket

 A bold black cricket came in from the night

with a message wrapped around his leg

I offered him bread, my body, my bed

and an indigo blue Russian egg.

He had only the song that crickets know

taught them by their dying mothers

He played it on the silk and scar of my skin

and told me there would be no others.

My hair is blond, his body was black

and hard as the truth in a mirror

The night was warm, the dawn too quick

and the last time drew one season nearer.

_____

for dverse creepy crawlies. 

For Our Lady of Smoke & Window Sills

 You Are Our Lady of smoke and window sills

and I am a wheel made of rope and memories

A birch skin sun, full of poetry and rum

lays out its playing cards on the breeze

If I have hurt you, take this yellow bird

and ask it to sing your childhood back

If it dies in your palm, then you'll know that all along

we've lain our hearts together on the track

There is no dome of heaven blue enough,

to pose as Sunday's ornament

no coin to buy the peacock's lovely strut

and no tongue to tell you what it meant

In every water well, a witching stick

to guide the thirst back to our lips

where we could cure the snowblind trumpeter

and offer him our silence like a kiss

There is no morning glory blue enough

to pose our fanned out deck of saints

or to repair the garland in your hair

that falls like leaves we pretty up with paints.

Crotalus Aquilus

 

The thing in my hair was not there

when I was a child--

only the breeze.

You cannot pet it, it will only

hunker down, hiding.

I am never lonely, but long to be.

Sometimes it slithers down my arms

to my fingers

and lays eggs inside.

(They turn to stone,

change flesh to bone.)

In my belly, its basket swells

with the things it saves--

a crowded hell.

"Look at the fat old lady, dropping things!"

the children call.

The thing in my hair bites their ball.

At night the thing whispers, nips,

draws blood and memories,

worries, fits.

(At dawn it dies and sleeps

wrapped like a hobble around my feet.)

Play a flute and see it risen as a Christ

undulating, swaying

in a mockery of praying

Above my head, a permanent rotten halo

unasked-for, inevitable,

whispering, "You are beautiful,

(Senora, like the setting sun,

mi viejo.")

___________

for The Sunday Muse #177

mi viejo = "my old one"

Crotalus Aquilus = Queretaro dusky rattlesnake, a venomous pit viper found at high altitude in Mexico. 

Trout Fishing In America

 

Left Michigan that June

with two teacher friends.

Saw Looking For Mr. Goodbar

in South Bend.

No wonder the country's going to hell.

All the teachers are cruising the bars!

In a Jackson Mississippi Mickey D's

there were elephants on the wall for art.

They're real, said Jim. No, said I.

Jim's grin. In my world, they are.

Crossing a bridge into Louisiana

we saw white cranes circling the marshlands.

The entire Richard Brautigan library across the back seat;

on the tape machine, Jackson Browne & friends.

It was just something to do that summer,

passing the bottle to pass the time.

But now, with all the black coffee blur behind me,

that year still goes down smooth, holds a shine.

~~~~~~~~~

for Sunday Muse #176.