how can you expect a poem
when even your dreams
lack imagination:
overdue library books,
a blurring of words
you can’t identify
when you wake up lost
in the home you own
when it’s raining grey
when days are broken
into units of to do
lonely for checkmarks
when lunch is fifteen minutes
with a dry sandwich
in a dim food court
on a chair molded
for much less
meaty haunches
when you need new shoes
and a few answers
before going any further
when you dust the corners
of your desk drawer
in search of forgotten chocolate
when the mailbox lets you down
with a brassy slap
when perennials no longer respond
to a nudge from your gloved finger,
last year’s garden crumbles
under your breath
when this is the only ink
that sticks
2 comments:
Love the opening to this one Kerry! You hooked me right away with "when even your dreams/lack imagination" (though my suggestion would be to move the semi-colon to after the end of line one). I like the list aspect to this one and the simplicity of the list "when lunch is fifteen minutes/
with a dry sandwich". I also enjoy how you interspersed the grander statements with the ordinary happenings.
The only pause for me, and it isn't really much of a one, is the second last line which left me wondering what other ink doesn't stick, so maybe the word "only" needs to be removed?
Nicely done!
oh i've been there. dry sandwich, forgotten chocolate, the brassy slap, in fact i'm having a lonely for checkmarks kind of day. an effective poem. wonder about using a word other than "poem" in the first line? epiphany, volta ...something that can be read a little more widely as a condition?
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