Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Monday, March 17, 2025

Sharing an Orange

 

I will share my orange with you,
passing the sharp sweet sections
across the table, and in so doing

pass the branches, the roots,
the sunny days and the rain,
the small leaves and blossoms, 
the whole tree and sky.

I sit across from you smiling,
a child, a woman, and old crone,
eating an orange, existing
as the breeze does, in fluidity.

This orange is gone, but the world
is full of other oranges. One day
we will be gone too, from each other,
from ourselves, from this life,

but time is full of other bodies,
other names, other days. We will
recognize each other. We will pause,
and share an orange again.
_________

Sparrows

 



Love bloomed
like the green buds of the wild weeds
under the overpass.

She lost the thread
when her ears filled with dialogue
written by devils and idiots.

Her love, in wool socks and field jacket,
lost his libido in the war
but phantom desire lives in his memory.

It isn't being coy
to hold back what you cannot save
from the black nest of loss.

Is it dusk or is she going blind?
The robot doctor holds no cures,
just needles with tiny mouths, enthroned.

Under the overpass
there is a constant buzz of insects
who live in old yogurt cups

Singing their serene song
like an engine before the crash
lifting lovers into each other's arms

somewhere beyond the wreck, beyond reason, 
at the edges of sodium lights and night frights--
two sparrows sold for a penny
where crows and cats spend all night calling.
_____________

for Word Garden Word List--The Beautiful Bureaucrat.

Music: The Doors Indian Summer



Sunday, March 16, 2025

Word Garden Word List--The Beautiful Bureaucrat

 

Hello my little worker bees, and welcome to this week's Word List poetry prompt! As I am only halfway through Louisa Young's amazing WWI novel My Dear I Wanted To Tell You,  I had to scavenge for a source for this week's List. I settled upon The Beautiful Bureaucrat  by Helen Phillips.

Helen Phillips

I read it some while back and only remember the broad strokes, but I did like it, and feel certain that whoever came up with the concept for Apple TV's series Severance  surely have read this book beforehand and modeled its office and the seemingly pointless and endless work that goes on there, after the office in this novel. This is a post-modernist fable about a woman who gets a job filing, but the whole situation is strange and baffling and bizarre. 

What we do here is to use at least 3 of the 20 words provided in a new, original poem of our own. Then simply link up, visit others, and don't get caught up in an inscrutable and soul-crushing office job. This prompt remains active until next Sunday when I will post a new one. Enjoy!

And now, your List:

baby
boxes
bread
buzz
coy
crazy
dusk
ears
files
fruit
green
handle
insect
memory
robot
serene
squiggly
tactic
yogurt
zombie

Ballad of the Lost Shark


 A song for the lost shark
at the bottom of the sea
A song for the notions
that line up perfectly
A song for the children
who once were you and me
A song for the west wind
and the nest high in a tree

Sing, sing, sing, for no reason
just because you can

A song for the lost car
rusting in a field
A song for the card sharp
who says shut up and deal
A song for the baby
who was born and then grew old
A song for the kind ones
who give their hand to hold

Sing, sing, sing for no reason
just because you can

for the shark down in the deep sea
and you there on the sand.

Friday, March 14, 2025

Beauty

 I stole beauty from another girl--
Ripped it right out of her hands
In a hail of cosmetics and hairspray,
Then ghosted away with it to my underground lair.
But when I tried to bash it open,
The lock wouldn't budge
And anyway, it wasn't my size.


I took it to my mother's house and dropped it dead center on her holiday table--
Shrieking, I raked my broken fingernails right down to the bone of love and hatred that props us together, and she
Embraced
The locked
Foreign
Beauty that I ripped off from some bitch on the bus,
And said, "Daughter,
At last!
Welcome home."
___________

for What's Going On? "Beauty"

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

House of Mirrors

 


You can open a window
by lifting it
or breaking it
you, with the bloody fist
of Creation.

"You rotten bastard"
can be said with a sly smile
or with his shit out at the curb.
One tongue can speak two languages.
One pane can break in, or out.

Some windows can't be opened.
This one has nine sections,
none of them whole.
Some are bricked up, painted shut,
or warped by weather.

I could tap on your window
with a lopsided grin
or a brick.
Let me in, I want to love you.
Let me in, I want to mess you up.

The blue window at seaside
is a yellow window after dark.
Open in springtime, so sweet the breeze.
Open in winter, someone has moved away
or died. 

I disliked you, but changed my mind.
I loved you right away, but changed my mind.
My reflection in the night-pane isn't the old me.
Should I wipe a clear spot on the window
or lean from the ledge in front of it?

You can open a window
by lifting it
or breaking it
you, with the bloody fist
of Creation.
__________

written for dverse poetics--the romance of the open window

image at top: Jim Holland "Summer Reading" 2005

Music: The Hollies Look Through Any Window


"Us" movie clip Adelaide meets her double.


Sunday, March 9, 2025

Word Garden Word List--Shy Creatures

 
Clare Chambers

Hello my little recluses, and welcome to this week's Word List poetry prompt! I have recently read a marvelous new novel by Clare Chambers entitled Shy Creatures. It's about a 37-year-old man found living with his rather dotty elderly aunt. He has a five foot beard and no inclination--or perhaps ability--to speak. He and the aunt are removed to a mental hospital (the story takes place in 1964) where the aunt quickly gives up the ghost, leaving the staff to try to solve the mystery of William, the man of few words. Find my review HERE


What we do here is to use at least 3 of the 20 words provided in a new, original poem of our own. Then simply link up, visit at least some others (or you're a dick) and then relax and smile benignly. This prompt remains active through next Saturday. 

And now, your List:

act
animals
arrival
art
cold
crash
cricket
fox
funny
hidden
instinct
mute
naked
private
ribbons
seconds
sky
spirit
ticket
weeds