Two Poems

Horace Mann Elementary

 

 

The star charts,

celestial navigation,

I understand nothing.

 

Hug the moon and smile

like a virgin.  The plans

of the universe

are like smoke.

 

I wind up in places

that just seem to underline

the nature of solitude. 

 

Mrs. Green rapped

my head

as if it were

an astronaut’s helmet.

 

I wish I could have sent a robot

to school instead of me. 

In the space suit of my body,

I resisted whatever it was they were.

 

 (This poem will appear in the Fall 2012 issue of Poetry East.)

 

 

There is Nothing to Say

 

The believers stood growing

covered with blossoms, humming

with bees.  The vines grew

on the telephone cables,

the hyacinths had faith

no one would crush them.

There was nothing to say–

this was the perfect world–

the light gave rise to it.

The boy with the kerchief

walked by smoking.

The girl with long legs swished,

a bomb in her handbag.

It was a normal day– nothing

happened.  There was nothing to say.

The squirrels balanced like prostitutes

on electrical lines.  There

was a collision.  The world was at peace.

 

 

 

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