(Last one then I'll post these only to my poetry journal)
Imagine
Imagine someone close to you has died and you have forgotten all the rituals.
Imagine a school year starting and you have nothing new to wear.
Imagine the Super Bowl in overtime while you fret over punctuation.
Imagine a dirty fork and no food at all.
The moment your subway car crosses an unknown precipice and you see
Brown eyes and blue eyes and closed eyes for the first time
And you realize that it never really mattered
If you fly or if you fall.
The doctor has a scalpel in his hand and it is Thanksgiving Day
And each of you is wondering if the other knows where he is
And where he wants to be
And that your anesthesiologist has pretty teeth
And keys to a closet full of answers.
Your name is Gertrude and you just turned eighty-seven
When a man in a grey wool suit stops by,
To hereby inform you and your family
That you have super powers and have had them all along.
It was an experiment in the womb, you see
And now that the former president is dead, it can be declassified.
Imagine a “No Vacancy” sign on a billboard in an empty desert
Blinking slowly as a dollar comes unstuck from the roadside
Tumbles under the back door of your car, and disappears.
Imagine letting it go.
Imagine someone close to you has died and you have forgotten all the rituals.
Imagine a school year starting and you have nothing new to wear.
Imagine the Super Bowl in overtime while you fret over punctuation.
Imagine a dirty fork and no food at all.
The moment your subway car crosses an unknown precipice and you see
Brown eyes and blue eyes and closed eyes for the first time
And you realize that it never really mattered
If you fly or if you fall.
The doctor has a scalpel in his hand and it is Thanksgiving Day
And each of you is wondering if the other knows where he is
And where he wants to be
And that your anesthesiologist has pretty teeth
And keys to a closet full of answers.
Your name is Gertrude and you just turned eighty-seven
When a man in a grey wool suit stops by,
To hereby inform you and your family
That you have super powers and have had them all along.
It was an experiment in the womb, you see
And now that the former president is dead, it can be declassified.
Imagine a “No Vacancy” sign on a billboard in an empty desert
Blinking slowly as a dollar comes unstuck from the roadside
Tumbles under the back door of your car, and disappears.
Imagine letting it go.