POEM A DAY 2019

the ins & outs

squall or no squall
i'm all for you
teeth or no teeth
there is a difference
but still
i'm on your side
i'm loving the shape of your gums
i wish you still had teeth
and yet
here you are
and can i just stop
like that
with how things are between us?

merged

let's lace our letters together
zigzagged through time
a love story told
on m&m wrappers
and photocopies
tied together with a string
plucked from the sidewalk
it had merged with

Professional development

At sea

—-

I can picture looking back
On these days
Wistfully

Working groups

It was time to put to bed
Some old ideas
Who were tired
But grasping at straws
For reasons to be let on
Rambling about.

We met at the kitchen table
To discuss strategy
And cadence.
We were hoping not to loose
sight
Of a shared goal.
In the end
Everyone left their tea cups on the table
For the host to tend to the next morning
And the meetings were on going
And the tired ideas were fighting
Hard as ever
But loosing their center
Unspooling
Towards a certain decline

(Feeling good)

Feeling good
Is good
Being good
Is better

Sometimes I can’t squeeze nuance
Onto a poem
Sometimes I find half eaten chocolates
 in my bag of pretzels.
A gift from myself
To myself
I am being good
To myself
But I hide the chocolates
In the dresser
Behind the towels
So I don’t have to share
Which is not good
And does not feel good
I am clawing around in the dark
Eating dark chocolate peanut butter cups
In the hallway

The urban village

The urban village
Is stretched thin
And far
The noodles start
As a white liquid
Ladled on to a sheet
We are spread out
And crammed in
We take turns hiding
In our rooms
Waiting for silence in
The kitchen.

More mantras

The idea of chanting is appealing to me 

Free will astrology

apron pockets

toni morrison
grace paley
alice munro
jotted notes on scraps of paper
stuck in apron pockets
built sentences
and stories
in their head
while pushing the pram to the park
or wiping the counter clean
they peeled layers off of children
and they kept digging

Cotidian

The daily life
of unfinished netflix shows
and weighing the merits of folding things
in thirds
vs.
shoving them in a drawer
of climbing the stairs
                                             again
                                    again
                           again
                  again
         again
again

when i was a child I wanted to live my life in pajamas
seamlessly slide from day to night to day to night

Wide

The tidal pools in Maine are worlds unto themselves
rich and swaying and
plentiful enough that the seven of us kids -
so used to being crowded in together
competing for resources, glances, some passing affection -
flung ourselves far and wide from each other
free to squat
wade
lounge
pluck
stare
to our hearts' contente

inheritance

My mother gave me life
Like anyone
And a sense of fiscal responsibility
She bought me braces
And the retainer I never wore
You could probably say
she gave me everything she was able to

I don't think I was a grateful child
a bit withdrawn
but she said she didn't remember it like that

plant life

He was a winter dear
I was a summer selk
He was raging against the machine
I was biking in a bathing suit
He was reading on the beach in a red sun hat
I was pointing my toes, stronger than anyone
He was even slower than you would think
I was on a mission

We were peaches
ripening in the breathless nights
We were apples in a pan
Softening to each other

milestones

Words emerge thick
a tongue wrapped around meaning
sounds that make it so
sounds that reach across cold air
a wail of willing it
not to be so.