Saturday, August 6, 2011

poetic aside Wednesday prompt suggested a " normal" poem....here are 3

1.
Summer Dinner

Time will come and sun will fade
breeze blown on hot skin as
supper drifts
there sitting father
black hair shaken back
from smiling eyes
mother just finishing
a laugh
little brother waiting
one small leg dangling
off the edge of chair
as we finish
listening for the
bell of the iced cream truck
coming soon



******

2. “Just one of those things??”

Pain grabs her from her sleeping bed
Kicks  her to the kitchen counter
Clutching her swollen belly as warm blood
Drips down thighs and a three-year-old 
Awoken almost-brother asks  
In high pitched wind-chimed clarity  
No more baby?


******
3.
Collateral Damage  

normal 
phantasmic creation
flushed brushed on 
would be mother face
grinning little girl joy
hand stroking  
bump she clearly sees 
and they group-grinned 
touch in turn
wondrous with
her

normal 
rapid drum-beat
bouncing joyfully off
sterile walls
sound track to 
grainy-inchling-news 
fragile as bright tissue paper
passed carefully trusted hand to hand   
fingers crossed by 
superstitious sentinels
not breathing "baby"  
word yet

normal
vials  of blood
crimson drawn 
returned in black and white
all clear - one day
ambiguous another
normal
ultimately, 
Chorionic villus sampling 
CVS
friendly as ubiquitous red Rx signs 
a 'rule out,' a few cells
an extra-special-be-surety-bond  
nauseous, ravenous, yawning
waiting for 

normal 
flushed cheeks, 
sparkled eyes, 
hand brushing belly
a doctor visit... 
all is well! 
heart beat strong,  strong, strong

normal
time ticks, secretly, silently
draining joy until 
devastation descends
a piano breaking free-falling
from a penthouse  floor
plummeting  
CVS, viper in Eden
slicing safety straps
slithering venom through 
phone lines, sibilantly hissing     
not, not, not 

not normal 
to love devastation
to proceed with calamity    
to embrace disaster growing
into certified fruition
horror is the ungrown baby  
rather than the baby born in hopeful joy
then embraced in terrified tears of 
revealed anomaly
"Make  the appointment' they say
"Just one of those things"
"Happens every day"   

normal  
hemorrhaged possibility pouring  
from a soft gut
kicked hard with a
steel toed boot
floating from nothing
to become all  

normal  
gurgled drowning gasping  
vail of  sobbing, sodden choices
sputtered wetly in unspeakable 
sadness

normal
dead eyes dulled with  
the no choice, choice
pancaked piano
vipered steel boots

No, nothing normal
no matter what they say
in their composed, rounded vowel form  
"sign-here," paper smiles
until
contained derailed love detonates 
explodes in blinding conflagration
onto the pancaked pavement
where they lay scattered
shrapnel seared, glittering fractured fragments 
ever falling, piercing again and again. 
torn hearts of collateral damage

 
  
   
(*things beyond one's own mirror are much
larger than they seem.)


  
   

4 comments:

  1. Are poems 2 and 3 related? A tough read. Wow. The exact nature of the event(s) described is ambiguous -- perhaps purposely so? One can make an educated guess, yet at risk of treading on what appears to be some very personal and painful ground. Probably best to absorb these discomfiting verses in respectful silence.

    David

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  2. David....Poetry is not personal as far as I am concerned. No need to tread lightly. The prompt was "normal". and very often women face painful personal issues that are dismissed in attempt to soothe as "normal" ..... These 2 are related only only in the fact that they deal with the complicated emotional and social milieu of pregnancy. PLEASE ALL FEEL FREE TO COMMENT... If you were disturbed then part of the intent has been achieved...in terms of raising awareness....

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  3. Poetry is a guise, something to be slipped on and off, yet experiences shared by unrelated people can grab and shake emotion.

    I was touched by the poetry, not disturbed. Still, It achieved its intent.

    Great writing, Doctor.

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  4. Mike Patrick ... it is the intent of every poet and perhaps human being to 'touch' another and connect with them... Thank you for the honor and ... your description of poetry is absolutely wonderful!

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