As the door to you spirals shut ( Read more... )

Call it revenge, if you like
or desperation
that scrabbling desire to see, to feel, to know
that we each have had an effect on the world
but a world made one person wide
and hanging the whole thing there like a sodden trenchcoat

Acceptance validates that scrabble ( Read more... )

O Tell Me The Truth About Love

Some say that love's a little boy,

And some say it's a bird,

Some say it makes the world go round,

And some say that's absurd,

And when I asked the man next-door,

Who looked as if he knew,

His wife got very cross indeed,

And said it wouldn't do.

Does it look like a pair of pajamas,

Or the ham in a temperance hotel?

Does its ( Read more... )

Loving the Odd Child
Copyright 2006 Anne Allanketner

The everyday child needs socks and sandwiches
Her hair combed, yes
And time to play, people to love.
The everyday child needs constant care
From you so keep her warm and kindly sheltered, nourished, held.

But it’s caring for the odd one, which makes us
whole again, after long confusions, blundering
and ( Read more... )

Pain is an old comrade
          almost friend-like, these days, familiar
          lurking, always present, waiting
          familiarity breeding its own children, of sorts:
                    habits of fear and withdrawal
          more acted upon, these days, than felt

Emptiness is a rapidly growing intimate ( Read more... )

 You still speak ( Read more... )

Ready to offer a whole heart
and turned away at the palisade
unwanted
rejected
denied

Thus, the offer was rescinded
and rather than a whole heart...
none of it
not even a friend's allotment

No, no news of joys or sorrows fall ( Read more... )

How tenuous is that boundary
between acceptance
and indifference
between ahhh...
and huh?

How nebulous is that difference
between the unshaken center
and the untouched one
between oh no
and too bad

That boundary
so close
and so porous
that it is easy to slip sideways
unshaken but moved
being harder to balance
and harder to remember why

Yet when the boundary is ( Read more... )

"It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily."
                                                -- Marlene Dietrich, Shanghai Express

Poised
in that breathless moment before the fall
as the dancer at the height of her jete
the plane at apogee

Forever ( Read more... )

Death, I am told, is a thief
stealing away time
and the treasures of a life-
time

an enemy
who comes with a bang or a whimper
with one soft exhale
or the crinkle-crunch of steel turning accordion
I am told

Death, I am told, is a lover
making flowers more sweet
colors brighter
smiles warmer
truer

a friendwho comes when you call her ( Read more... )