Monday, September 29, 2008

Tears

Tears


Makes me think of the ocean,

the salty smell
saturating the air
drowning it;

how I can only walk
alongside of it

because I can't swim.

It's the under-currents
that move the waves;
it's not really the wind
like some people might think.

It takes a lot to swim
against those
under-currents.

I'm better off here
safe on the beach,
watching the waves,
breathing in the salt.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Uncle

irrelevant,

yet as necessary
as a shredder, or
a coffee maker

being polite, you refer
to me as “uncle”
only because you don’t
know my name

and you don’t care to

after all, I am not a part
of the work you do

unless something left behind
on the desk last night has gone
missing the next morning

Monday, September 22, 2008

Common decency

You say you are often

shocked

by all
the unkindness
you see in the world.

But to the boy
who held
the lift doors

open

for you

while you fumbled around
for your keys
and hollered for your husband
who was picking leaves off
his freshly polished wrx,

you did not even have
the decency
to thank him
for waiting.

Dinner?

not coming
for dinner?

last year
I said no

I gave
the same answer
for the year
before

and the year
before that

and the year
before that,
was when I was soft
gave in
and ate
in regret

let's just say
it wasn't the cooking
it was the cook

and what the cook said
about the way I walked
the way I talked,
what I was wearing,
that my hair
was too
short
and how
it was all
my mother's
fault

and that
was the end of it
and I will never
regret saying
no
not this year
not the next
not ever