Friday, January 19, 2024

WORK/LIFE BALANCE FRAGMENTS

The heaving, singing stairs
wild st john’s wort, overzealous creek
ghosts of dead mice flung from their traps
anger idle buzzing on the grimy lazy susan
guests with their computers trailing cords

Amal asked the name of forget me nots
Jazz let me show her the garden 
Lizzie tried to swim to the moon
Judy dragged me in a basket
Sis hit me with the fly swatter
Louise took me to the parking lot
a wasp stung my eye closed

Shadow of a fern shadow of a spider
looking for cooking teachers, for language teachers
someone teach me how to break a line
looking to steep something so satisfying
for you to want to try this carrot top tea

Once we were angry in this bed
tossing against each other
something about the hierarchy and the architecture
Quaker golfer looming royalty 
the audacity of a stone porch
demanding leisure

All my friends
how I’ve watched them gleam and flock
now ethereal in a purple
they spin their gracious yarn
wincing, they forgive me
for my allergies, my tantrums 
friendship, a love allowed to morph
forget me nots year round

I was alone on the path  
feeling alive feeling alive 
the snake met my angled clog 
and made me leap without decision
permission to gallop,
trail tape flashing through the trees
pearly everlasting grove
the call of the tattletale

I pressed my hand to the moss
and felt you gone 
the dense endlessness 
the lack of tricks
the heaving in to let me lean
and ask to stay 


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