I I’ve been dabbling in poetry lately. While several of my poems have been published through the years, and one even placed in a literary contest here in Colorado, I don’t consider myself a poet, really. I’ve not studied the genre like I have fiction and creative nonfiction. But something about it has been calling me. I think I like that I can play around with language and punctuation and flow and metaphor in ways that you just can’t with other types of writing. And I can swoop in and out of thoughts and imagery on the page.
Here’s one of my latest poems, dedicated to Mom and Dad’s daily challenges as they work through their early 70s.
Invincible Ignorance
Her hair dark, shining, beyond her shoulders
thick as three horses’ manes
legs perpetually tanned
sure-footed
in the garden
on the sawdust dance floor
carrying her sharp-tongued wit
wherever it wished to go,
taking her children along
for the bright lights of
the Ferris wheel ride.
His hands rough,
capable
of moving livestock
and minds,
holding dogs
and the dreams of little girls;
his shoulders, those shoulders
carrying us
and keeping all things steady,
the shelter of reason
the home of
it’s all going to be okay.
But now
her hair,
turning a corner
to spun silver —
where there is no planting
on uneven ground,
and the fair
with its lights spinning
at the pink of dusk
is likely
leaving town.
And his hands,
those shoulders,
they’ve turned on him
with knots like centuries-old
live oak branches,
creaking in a South Texas
night wind,
and swollen joints
no amount of tools
from his truck
can fix.
Uncertainty creeps in
like a rattlesnake
slipping
through tall dry weeds
for a strike.
pain overtakes
the laughter
meds don’t mix
with beer
mornings
are a crap shoot
and
reaching for anything
is just too much.
Me? I can’t, won’t
wrap my head
around the present
or how it fits with the past
or how it shapes the future.
Yet I do know
invincible natures
live longer
than those
who are not
bone and muscle
are a fallible
source of direction,
salvation
and, mostly,
ignorance remains
a nice place to visit.
After all
their truth
is not my truth
and the state of
all matter
is relative
anyway.
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