Anecdotal Evidence
More data is needed
for us to say for sure, but
there is an
ever-growing
body of
evidence
that while the virus
primarily
attacks
one's lungs
it also
frequently
breaks
one's heart
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Parenting at The End of the World
Two days ago we learned
we have twenty years
--if that--
before it's over
before we reach the end of the world
I would roll over and go back to sleep except
I'm a mother
of a child
who will be twenty five
when the world ends.
So I sit up
and wonder how to wipe the sleep from my eyes
and fix this.
Eat less meat
Stop driving
Start composting
Start planning
Stop dreaming
I cannot stop this. The end is coming but here is the thing:
It has always been the end of the world.
Slavery
Poverty
Plague
First contact
The First World War
The potato famine
Every famine
The Depression
Every depression
The Second World War
The Cold War
Turf Wars
Every war
For every mother who has ever lived the end of the world has loomed
For every mother who has ever lived the end of the world was real
The difference this time is that it's happening to all of us
and for once in our
short, sad history
this particular genocide just might be
deserved.
we have twenty years
--if that--
before it's over
before we reach the end of the world
I would roll over and go back to sleep except
I'm a mother
of a child
who will be twenty five
when the world ends.
So I sit up
and wonder how to wipe the sleep from my eyes
and fix this.
Eat less meat
Stop driving
Start composting
Start planning
Stop dreaming
I cannot stop this. The end is coming but here is the thing:
It has always been the end of the world.
Slavery
Poverty
Plague
First contact
The First World War
The potato famine
Every famine
The Depression
Every depression
The Second World War
The Cold War
Turf Wars
Every war
For every mother who has ever lived the end of the world has loomed
For every mother who has ever lived the end of the world was real
The difference this time is that it's happening to all of us
and for once in our
short, sad history
this particular genocide just might be
deserved.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Metaphor
Push through the cobwebs cluttering the attic of your mind--
but what a tired metaphor!
Which, when you think about it, is in itself a tired metaphor --
and metaphors are sort of overdone, anyway.
But! I will persevere.
I am going to slog through this --
"Slog"? Who says slog? That is a poety word, not a real one --
-- I am going to beat this dead horse
until a gift falls out of it's
dry, old mouth.
Push through the cobwebs cluttering the attic of your mind--
but what a tired metaphor!
Which, when you think about it, is in itself a tired metaphor --
and metaphors are sort of overdone, anyway.
But! I will persevere.
I am going to slog through this --
"Slog"? Who says slog? That is a poety word, not a real one --
-- I am going to beat this dead horse
until a gift falls out of it's
dry, old mouth.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
March 28th 2011
do you know why i haven't written any poems?
it's because i am too busy watching television.
i am not ashamed of this, however.
i am busy watching other people's poems
tell themselves.
it's because i am too busy watching television.
i am not ashamed of this, however.
i am busy watching other people's poems
tell themselves.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Saturday March 26th
las vegas
"Never put your hand in your pocket;
that's a fireable offence."
i'm training, i'm breaking every rule
"i promised myself that when i survived Vietnam, i'd never sweat anything in life."
he didn't realize he was going to have all these problems
"i have problems
i have nightmares
it never leaves you."
you gotta be kidding me.
"you just adjust to it."
today really hit home -- the types of things they have to experience when they're at work.
"Never put your hand in your pocket;
that's a fireable offence."
i'm training, i'm breaking every rule
"i promised myself that when i survived Vietnam, i'd never sweat anything in life."
he didn't realize he was going to have all these problems
"i have problems
i have nightmares
it never leaves you."
you gotta be kidding me.
"you just adjust to it."
today really hit home -- the types of things they have to experience when they're at work.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
March 23rd 2011
there is a crack in something sacred
it won't be healed
the pain repeated
anytime you process
what came before
it won't be healed
the pain repeated
anytime you process
what came before
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
March 22nd 2011
This is just to say
I have eaten
all of the Ritz crackers
that were there on the plate
which I should probably
have brought with me
to work.
Forgive me.
They were forbidden.
So salty
and so caloric.
I have eaten
all of the Ritz crackers
that were there on the plate
which I should probably
have brought with me
to work.
Forgive me.
They were forbidden.
So salty
and so caloric.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
March 16th 2011
focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus. focus!
focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus. focus!
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus. focus!
focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus.focus focus focus focus
focusfocusfocusfocus
focusfocusfocus
focusfocus
focus. focus!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
March 10th 2011
I would write a love poem
I but I am getting tired of those.
I could write one of nature,
charting this winter's long repose.
I could try a standard patterned one,
like a complex vilanelle,
I could attempt a sonnet or a haiku, or
one of those easternish gazelles.
Each day another poem
Each day another fight
to make sense of all these feelings
and all you can do is write.
I but I am getting tired of those.
I could write one of nature,
charting this winter's long repose.
I could try a standard patterned one,
like a complex vilanelle,
I could attempt a sonnet or a haiku, or
one of those easternish gazelles.
Each day another poem
Each day another fight
to make sense of all these feelings
and all you can do is write.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
March 9th, 2011
i don't want to say good bye.
not yet.
not ever.
and yet.
it's been a long time coming, three months, nearly four, since the accident
and you've been suffering, we've been suffering
but i've been putting this off, this
"saying goodbye" this, "letting you go"
not yet.
and yet.
i can't keep paying the upkeep, the maintenance, on a body so badly damaged
i can't afford to keep you, splintered like you are
for sentimental reasons
my heart couldn't take it, either.
and so.
and yet.
and now.
it's time.
not yet.
not ever.
and yet.
it's been a long time coming, three months, nearly four, since the accident
and you've been suffering, we've been suffering
but i've been putting this off, this
"saying goodbye" this, "letting you go"
not yet.
and yet.
i can't keep paying the upkeep, the maintenance, on a body so badly damaged
i can't afford to keep you, splintered like you are
for sentimental reasons
my heart couldn't take it, either.
and so.
and yet.
and now.
it's time.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
March 7th 2011
it's like being stuck
in a sandwich
of doom:
this is what happens
when you purchase a house
built in 1929.
the walls cave in with moisture
and the ceiling collapses from damp
and the basement floods, waves of water rising steadily through the night
ironic
that you're being soaked out
considering you live
in the driest place on earth.
in a sandwich
of doom:
this is what happens
when you purchase a house
built in 1929.
the walls cave in with moisture
and the ceiling collapses from damp
and the basement floods, waves of water rising steadily through the night
ironic
that you're being soaked out
considering you live
in the driest place on earth.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
March 5th 2011
Communicating.
"I'm shorapling".
"What?"
We are on the telephone, each one of us holding one close to an ear. The wind is rushing, I can hear you breathing, I think you must be outside. I imagine you standing there, in the snow, without mittens, a cell pushed tight to your head.
"I'm shrapling," you say again, and I know you are getting frustrated, I know you are losing patience. We have been shouting down the phone like this for days now.
"I still can't hear you," my voice is straining, I can hear the wind, it is rushing on my end, too, and I want to understand you, I want to know what's going on. "Please tell me what you mean."
Please. Please. Please.
"I'm shorapling".
"What?"
We are on the telephone, each one of us holding one close to an ear. The wind is rushing, I can hear you breathing, I think you must be outside. I imagine you standing there, in the snow, without mittens, a cell pushed tight to your head.
"I'm shrapling," you say again, and I know you are getting frustrated, I know you are losing patience. We have been shouting down the phone like this for days now.
"I still can't hear you," my voice is straining, I can hear the wind, it is rushing on my end, too, and I want to understand you, I want to know what's going on. "Please tell me what you mean."
Please. Please. Please.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
March 2nd 2011
Almost Three Months
It has been nearly three months since we've spoken
Since we've exchanged words
language with concrete meanings
oh,
It has been almost three months since
I've opened up and let the feelings out
since I've spoken the thruth
I have
It has been much too long since
I've asked you to listen and yet
you've been waiting here all along
missed this
This is rough. This isn't ready. But it's here. I'm here. I never left
just hid away for awhile.
It has been nearly three months since we've spoken
Since we've exchanged words
language with concrete meanings
oh,
It has been almost three months since
I've opened up and let the feelings out
since I've spoken the thruth
I have
It has been much too long since
I've asked you to listen and yet
you've been waiting here all along
missed this
This is rough. This isn't ready. But it's here. I'm here. I never left
just hid away for awhile.
Monday, December 13, 2010
december 13th, 2010
tired isn't the right word for it
exhausted is closer
heavy is best
but your limbs are moving through warm water
and you are too
tired
too heavy
too much at a loss
to find the best word to describe this.
exhausted is closer
heavy is best
but your limbs are moving through warm water
and you are too
tired
too heavy
too much at a loss
to find the best word to describe this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)