The Healing

I spread five fingers and five seasons came;
I kept the one that had no name.

I closed them 'round the stepchild month;
She felt like love when love is done.

I stuffed the lost one in my mouth,
And spoke things scratching to get out.

The Gypsy wrapped around my eyes,
And by blue evening I was blind.

She wormed her way into my ear,
And whispered quite like you, my dear.

She burrowed deep into my brain,
Sweet and sharp like blade and cane.

But when the sweet bitch found my heart,
She bit and sealed the broken part.

_______

Optional musical accompaniment.

The Check-Up

The doctor is a white bird
Under a fluorescent sun.
I am a little frightened fish
Half mermaid, half undone.

He asks, "What brings you in today?
What do you mean by appearing here this way?
Have you had anything to eat?
Grasses, communion, meat?

Have you ever wondered how a raindrop stays round?
Or why they always fall?
What's the big attraction with the ground?
How old are you? Any idea at all?


Sexual partners?
Male?
Female?
Out to their families?
Symptoms?
Wings?
Tail?

What drugs have you taken?
This morning?
Last week?
Can you tell me?
Did you bring them?
Can you speak?

What did your father die of?
What did your relationships die of?
Or do they still persist?
Is there anything I've missed?

When you were a child,
Any fevers, coughs, or chills?
Was there one particular day
When you were most desperately, painfully ill?

When your heart beats,
Is it like a Chesapeake & Ohio train?
Are your ribs the track, your legs the trestle?
Does it rattle through your brain?


Or is it more like the lazy waves
Rolling in off the lake in July?
If you remember the time you had a hand to hold,
Will you act the girl, and cry?


All right.
I see.
None of this is exact.
None of this is free.


How do you like the paper gown?
Are you afraid of needles, sharps, and pokes?
Do you think you could go like this, for me?
Do you think this is a joke?


You can get dressed now, we're done.
Did you feel the need to pray? To dissociate? To come?
It's all normal.
Take three of these.
Call the desk with questions, or if you start to seize."


The doctor is a white bone,
His diploma terra cotta;
And I am a little frightened fish
Slipping back into the water.


_______
 

The Amazing Gypsy Fortune Teller

The gypsy fortune teller said, let's begin then.

Stay away from men named Tom,

Fireworks, bombs,

And poisonous creatures of every description.



Then she sipped her tea

And the silence stretched out

Endlessly.



Anything else? I asked, a little pointedly.

Of course, she said,

And nodded, yes even winked, at me.



Again she sipped her tea

Which habit was becoming

Rather annoying to me.



Well? I demanded. What?



Avoid escalators,

Pontificators,

And pitch men of every stripe.

Shun sailors

And milksops of all persuasions and natures.

Be suspicious of bishops

And high churchmen of all denominations,

But most of all,

Remember that cheap hair spray is an abomination.



What do you recommend? I inquired,

Simply wanting the whole thing to end.



Glue.

Bamboo.

White plaster.

Epoxy or polyurethane.

Pie crust.

Endust.

Cat gut or monkey brains.



I'll be leaving now, I said.

She just sipped her tea

And wiggled her ears

Quite thoroughly amazingly.

_______

Fireblossom's Niceness School

Hello Darlings. I admit, I have not quite been myself the past couple of days.

I felt so lethargic yesterday! I didn't even dust the astrolabes. What could cause this?

Then, later, everything and (almost) everyone began to irritate me. Imagine that.

Then, a check of the calendar revealed all. I am now doing my best to be cheerful and helpful. So, what can I do for you? Careful. *smile*