Sept - Poem 13
Lupus lite #1 / Yael Aldana
I can see perfectly
Sometimes
Without glasses
Sometimes
I can’t see with glasses.
Can I see?
See?
Read?
Sometimes I can see
But I can’t understand
See but
can’t remember.
Glasses on
Glasses off
If I read, If I understand
If I remember
It’s a good day.
Nothing pains me more than to see your labor / Catherine Bai
It hurts to see you smile
when I open a book
it's not the ink that will kill you
but the language
You don't exist
and then it happens
I'm not your kin
and then it happens
You get a papercut trying to turn the pages
The poem you copied with your hand
was so beautiful on my wall, I asked
what the characters meant
I don't know, you said,
but here is a dot I made
and a line. Here is a curve with a hook at the end.
It's a perfect poem, isn't it?
I didn't have the heart to say
the poem had already vanished
It ended in the sweep of her arm
when the water was drying on the parchment
it ended when she laid the brush on the table
and I could no longer watch her body
mesmerize itself, the mother bird that regurgitates the worm
without thinking, the tree that doesn't plan its flower or fruit
it doesn't ask if it's time or if it's good
it simply blooms—
The Cat Promises Me Nothing / Danielle Boodoo Fortune
The cat promises me nothing.
she comes and goes, just like the first night
she appeared at the front gate, all ribs,
eyes and whiskers, four hungry kittens
in tow. Just like the morning she showed up
wet and shuddering in pain, pushing against
my palm in the half-light. She goes and comes
silently, threaded with flowers and dew.
The cat comes and goes
but her kittens remain, gray and calico, curled
in warm corners and purring on bookshelves.
The cat who has promised me nothing
grows bored of the rug in the corner
and of the couch. She sets herself up
on my desk, among the paintbrushes
and the post-it notes.
Sometimes I wonder if she knows
how I watch for her shadow in the evenings,
half-hoping, half-dreading her shadowed shape
at the edge of the lamplight. I leave the window
open, blurred edges of my heart trailing
rooftops and dark streets.
She brings the scent of wild places
moss, rainwater, the dust of pollen
as she brushes past, a reminder
that no home can hold everything,
that we all pass through warmth only
for one moment at a time.
When she comes and goes, I try not
to think of how soft she has become, and
how sharp the world outside will always be
no matter how hard I try to file its edges.
When she comes home, I remind myself
that the cat has promised me nothing.
She reminds me that nothing is ever promised,
not even when we cannot help but love.
Dithyramb 13: for Edna St. Vincent Millay / Kendra Brooks
Millay they say had quite the way with anyone she wanted
And if you got in her way she’d lock you away in a sonnet
What lips her lips have kissed and where and why is daunting
And in what arms she’s lain I cannot say, I only know
Her poetry is full of ghosts still tapping on the glass for a reply
What loves of hers have come and gone are the secrets of a lonely tree
And her voice remains a string of colored beads forever leading to the sea
Defying definition she is neither pale nor pink in her elegant design
Like pressed flowers in daintiness, her poetry, in ageless books resides
Read on –the shanty straining under the turning of the tide,
the strong wind and shattered spray of the big surf that breaks all day
Savage beauty could not suffer her to pass, not a timid poet was she
but a summer sang in her that sings no more, and if you dare to read
Her words will breathe your soul back into you, of that you can be sure.
Threshold / Kimberly Gibson-Tran
Late &
my flash-
light’s
fading
orange.
I curse
Duracell.
Undercover,
I’m hot-
breath
reading.
Creak
on a step
is Mom at
door-crack.
We secret-
wait. Some-
times she
knows. Some-
times I
only think
she knows,
the shush
of slippers
downing.
I never
wondered
why she
was up,
why this
eye-door
dance. For
years,
we didn’t
give
it up.
Disorderly Conduct / Yvette Perry
Order in the court
The villains want to speak
No laughing
No smiling
No showing your teeth
Order in the court
The toddler wants to rule
No rhyme and
No reason
Just stupid and cruel
Order in the court
The rich man bends a knee
Corruption and
Kickbacks and
Singing off key
Order in the court
The leaders race to win
Grab power
Trade favors
Then do it again
Order in the court
The judges blow the case
Turn backwards
Speak sideways
Un-do and erase
Order in the court
The papers spew their lies
Even in
Daylight
Democracy dies
Order in the court
The preacher makes a stand
Damnation
And money
And shame hand in hand
Order in the court
The college closes doors
No dreamers
No strivers
No Fall campus tours
Order in the court
The business cuts the fat
For profit
Efficient
AI can do that
Order in the court
The streamer posts a pod
Subscribe now
For rage bait
Hit like and applaud
Order in the court
The shit has hit the fans
Tyranny
Police states
And empathy bans
Order in the court
The devil’s had his way
And this time
Like all times
The People will pay
Icarus – Dreaming of Another Day / Amber Wei
Great imagination is unadjusted
to the ruinous altitudes that plague man
for our hands hold no underlying basin
and the drops just fall
trickling into the depths
that dark chasms hide as we
trip amongst our feet
Hide from me what are the obstacles of my eye
so that my steps can be merry among dust that
hide the caverns that fallen are
the emotions that escape earthly reality
that consume what imagination
cannot give
