March Poetry
March was harsh for many of us, and the poetry that sees it to its end is harsh and disjointed and only a little hopeful. It will get better.
War makes insomniacs and bad poetry
So I'll need to find an earplug
And the bed's gotten hot
And I'm wondering if we need
Some psychological support
The bed's gotten hot
At least it hasn't gotten hit
And I'm wondering if we need
Some psychological support
As the bombs keep falling on
And the tweets keep rolling on
And we keep not being involved
As we seek psychological support
For the anxiety of this war
That we're not even fighting
Outside of our heads
And the pit of our stomachs
And the feed of our apps
When will it end?
And until then, my friend
Is it insensitive
to look for my
missing earplug
that is not a missing
person
and be annoyed at my cat
keeping up at night
instead of the bombs?
Is it okay
to still live?
Changing spine
I was born with a spine of stone
Formed straight into the womb
It can't bend
It can break
It's broken before
Multiple times
I rebuilt it
Piece by piece
Someone put me in a cage
Called the masses to see me
Look at that girl
With the straight-up spine
In the cage, I couldn't stand
Onlookers were disappointed
They shouted ‘give us our money back’
And threw ink balloons at my face
I used the ink to write on the floor
Let me out
Don’t scream at me
I hate oranges
They destroyed my cage
And dragged me out
And replaced me with a copper baby
In a glass case
I crawled away to a creek
My spine was broken again
I let out a long, loud wail
That shook the forest
And scared the birds into flight
I wailed and wailed until my lungs were hurting
And my head had no more tears or anger
Then the creek took me
And carried me downstream
I landed on the sand
And pulled myself out
Of the water
My skin was blue
My spine was gone
The fish in the creek had replaced it
With reeds and weeds
And my whole body started blooming
Punctured day
Today was a blah kind of day
A brown water from the tap kind of day
A scattered brain and energy in the way
A leaking shower head and it’s too much
Today was a good kind of day
I washed my hair and now it goes swish
The new cat I’ll be sitting is a bundle of purrs
My husband and I are finally fixing the shower
How do I stop letting days
And water
Go to waste from a punctured hose
Down the drain?