Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Trailer Park Gypsy

I'm a trailer park Gypsy.
I pay a fortune for the rent on my lot every month,
but it's just a sparrow flying through my head and out my mouth. 

At the communal mailbox, you'll see me.
I'm the hag with the horse blanket hair,
replying in Romany when you say good morning.

My trailer, in afternoon, 
is like the inside of a space capsule awaiting rescue at sea.
Helicopters bring in storms, report that conditions are bad
and what is an old Gypsy woman to them anyway? 

Knock on my door at dusk,
I'll answer holding a knife wet with chicken blood.
(Don't go so white, it's only a box mix.)

I was young once, with skin as dark as a stolen horse's flanks.
The city men, with voodoo wives screeching from their wallets
log-walked on the wheels of my wagon, on fire for my exciting scorn.

Now, televised baseball creates spring, and everybody's fortune is the same.
How I long for something else,
for the lever on my recliner to be a hatchet, 
for the goose on my cinder block steps to be an imp,

And for you to return from the dead, little hunchback.
I would like to be loved one last time,
here in the shadow of the church tower, where the bells sound like
women in the throes--

Where I might be denied entry, but you my deaf romancer?
Never you, because God loves a true heart
and I want to roam, reborn, in your reflected glory.
_______

17 comments:

  1. I'm the hag with the horse blanket hair,

    wow - that is rich, and just fills in all the blanks - and totally authenticates the spirit of this piece! stunning for its elegance -
    great story unfolds here in this piece, it's a bit like reading a tarot card sequence - intriguing and exciting, with just enough of the "foreboding" - and dare I say it, yes - I must - I love the slight scorn voice/tone in the words, captures the flavour of the gypsy experience of so many.

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  2. A wonderful portrait! The mention of the hunchback is intriguing. Is your gypsy an Esmeralda who escaped death?

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  3. My thought went the same as Rosemary's... a great story and a portrait... coming from Sweden we see the gypsies outside every grocery store, begging not fortune telling, most of them coming here from Romania.

    But the description how they look is perfect.

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  4. Ha, I wrote today's poem yesterday and just posted it. It had a gypsy in it, too! So I changed mine to vagabond. Works for me. And I am definitely the hag with horse blanket hair, lol. How perfect! The "skin dark as a stolen horse's flanks" is just brilliant. I would like to be loved one last time too, but by a dog. This poem is a wonder, as your poems always are. Your imagery is always out of this world.

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  5. I loved reading your write! That old trailer park Gypsy. The horse blanket hair. Who remembers the rescue at sea of the space capsule? Chicken blood, only a box mix. You have certaily filled your poem with goodies!!! Love it. The Gypsy also jumped into my write....perhaps we share the same muse?

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  6. Very, very vivid. Many of us seemed to zero in on the horse blanket hair, and I did, too. What a perfect, precise image.

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  7. 3 for 3, FB? Somehow I thought this prompt might awaken the gypsy in you.

    ;-)

    And.. just wow! Better than I even imagined it was going to be.. a dash of Esmeralda, washed up in a backwater trailer park but still wielding her knife and promising to love forever. Magic!

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  8. "...on fire for my exciting scorn.." what a gem of a line, glittering in this Romany necklace like the wild whites of a stolen horse's eyes...too many other exquisite lines to count, but it soars on every one like the sparrow that you give us in the opening stanza--you are rolling high on those wheels, Shay, more like a dragonfly than a log-dancer, but every bit as intense and coordinated. Beautiful beautiful poetry. You are on fire, girl.

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  9. 'how I long for something else' ~~~ no. your poetry fills me to the brim, every time.

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  10. "the horse blanket hair" Love the phrase, your remaking (re-meaning) of the words.

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  11. "I'm the hag with the horse blanket hair"

    I love the alliteration, the way this just roll off the tongue.

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  12. i love dogs, too. mostly, they're better than two-legged people. ~

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  13. Very vivid imagery - the heart wants what the heart wants - Lovely

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  14. I read a lot of truth in this. glad to meet you again Shay! "Never you, because God loves a true heart..." I love this line. I can see it being said to a dog or cat quite easily.

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  15. I love how the sardonic tone turns tender at the thought of her little hunchback. Even jaded hearts have a soft spot.

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  16. Another fabulous write. You make my wish I had more gypsy blood. The lever on my recliner only issues a grunt.

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?