She’s unbreakablebut easily bent
as stubborn as a mule
but when push comes to shove
concaves her spine into the wind
so she doesn’t need me
until she needs
craves my embrace only
when it’s near enough to envelop her
in the absence,
we are just strangers sharing familiar history
and phone lines,
whispering “until I see you again …”
when she’s here,
we’re a psychic friends network
finishing each other’s thoughts
but languishing in the laborious lugubrious articulation of sentences
when she’s gone,
she becomes ancestral myth
remembered theoretically as a moral teaching tool
cleaving us apart
is like banishing a twin
while the collision together
equally disturbs our rhythms
shakes loose the axis of the galaxy
affecting space alien trade routes
halfway across the Orion Arm
until patterns synchronize and stabilize
I miss sharing her pulse
the give-and-take battles
of ego and surrender
hers as much as mine
although mine takes center stage more often
personality fades into vapor
ceases to break the surface
slumbers for days at a time
before rising to check the calendar
realize her eviction
then shutter eyes again
how her chapters scribe themselves
I can only conjecture
pen what I imagine
and wait to crack her fortune cookie shell for the answer
unbreakable, she bends in the wind
opening her fate like a sail
landing wherever the breeze blows,
spine bent, but unbowed
conviction untamed,
pride untarnished
mouth closed
ears open
arms wide
Thanks for another great poem. I'm enjoying not only looking in old books for poems to love. I loved all of "A Wino's memories". It may come that I will love this one entirely in time (or space;) That bit is taking me time to absorb. Perhaps because I was immediately thinking about writing it differently, (and probably will, thanks for the inspiration!) The opening "Concaves her spine into the wind..." is brilliant. The psychic friends is really right on, as is the ancestral myth and moral teaching. The ending really had me, but only after rereading the beginning. To much space :P Really wonderful still, I'll be visualizing and pondering for at least a few days.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is a definite inspiration.