Wither

There is nothing of the bird in me
but how I run—

surely, like the child did
through the glass door. He

was still singing.


I can always find you somewhere,
little hole of space,

empty black mouth with the beak that opens.

My dreams appall me, as Catherine said,
some Heathcliff there.

Berlin

The way the dogs, years after the wall came down,
kept running beside it, where it no longer was –

And the dog I took from the shelter
for a hike in hills where I let it off the leash,
and lost it.

Or the dog I owned with my boyfriend in college –
and then I left the boyfriend, and with him the dog

that later remembered me on the street
when a stranger was walking it.

Both this way and these ways
for at least a moment a day, the brief still
stop in my life that says you were, and are somewhere still.

Bird

The birds disappear into the trees

the way I, once, disappeared into you.

When we crossed the equator

we had streamers and punch.

Pope Joan, discovered as a woman

was torn apart on Level C in the movie theatre.

You find what you seek, yet what if I seek

an image of you I can live with?

Today on Oprah

A pastor beat his wife to death with a marble rolling pin. He dragged her outside in a comforter and beat her some more with a rock. Then he strangled her with a seatbelt. They had been married for 24 years. She was the youngest in her family and everyone loved her.

Also, a man and his wife separated after ten years. He had their children at his apartment for a visit. They were beautiful children, aged nine and eight. He suffocated the girl. He strangled the boy. He went to his wife’s house and stabbed her more than 59 times. She survived this and went on Oprah to let others know they might survive too.

Meditation after the show:

I will be aware that anyone can just ‘snap.’ I will look out for signs of depression, social isolation and loss of job. I will keep in mind that loving fathers and husbands can actually be brutal murderers underneath it all.

*

Today on Oprah Oprah said she loved shoes and had five hundred pairs. Then she showed people who had lost all their things in a hurricane.

*

Today on Oprah it was all about pathological liars. There was this woman who told her friends that her daughter had cancer. She also told the doctor that her baby turned blue. Because of this, the doctor gave her baby a spinal tap. Actually the daughter did not have cancer and the baby never did turn blue. She did, though, have the spinal tap.


Meditation after the show:

I will be careful not to believe everything I hear. I will be aware that my best friend could actually be lying to me.

*

Today on Oprah the whole hour was about how to make one’s buttocks/ass/butt look good in a pair of jeans.

All different kinds of asses were shown in different styles of jeans. Two English ladies told us which asses looked best and why.

*

Today the Oprah show was about buying the right bra. Apparently, 85 % of women wear the wrong bra size. Some Oprah staff went up to women in department stores and asked to see their bras and breasts. Then they told the women how bad their breasts looked in their bras. It seemed embarassing but the women didn't seem to mind.

*

Oprah told today how she prayed to Jesus to get her an acting job in The Color Purple and then Steven Spielberg called her and gave her an acting job in The Color Purple.

*

For her 50th birthday Oprah had all these celebrities beamed in by satellite to her show. They all said how wonderful she was. Oprah got really teary when Gwyneth Paltrow told her she should run for president.

*

Oprah, were you really molested by a cousin, an uncle and a family friend?

*

Today I read on Oprah.com that Oprah raised 3 million dollars for Hurricane Katrina victims. She raised this money from people who watched her show. Oprah, why do you ask for money from others when Wikipedia says you have a net worth of $800 million?

*

Today on Oprah I felt kind of sick because Oprah showed a black bear getting electrocuted on a telephone pole in the suburbs. Also there was a woman who had a tumour cut off of her and the tumour weighed 200 pounds.


Then Oprah had these really famous ice skaters on the show. They were called Tanya and Mark. Oprah showed this video of the two of them dancing together on the ice. They were both in orange costumes. It was a big competition and thousands of people were watching. Mark had Tanya lifted way up above his head, he spinning around on one foot on the ice. Then he lost his grip and Tanya slipped from his hand. She fell fifteen feet face first onto the ice; you could see her face on Oprah’s video, landing on the ice and bouncing up and down there.

“What did that feel like?” Oprah asked her.

If I were negro *

You can have the child.
The child won't last.
Did you know that Edvard Munch
was called confused and inarticulate,
deranged and depraved? You would.
If I were negro as some negro are
I'd have a hat for my stand. You could call me
Mister. Or not. Or no.**
I have no picture with which to make a postcard of myself.
Dont remember, that's what I want to say,
The aged star singing Dido in the park last week.
It was summer here.


* Charles McGill www.artnegro.com
** Or, Poetry October 2006, Thomas Sayers Ellis

March 1, 2007

The Womens' Baths

I do not believe
that drowning will not be painful.
What difference if I own or rent?
Though I admit, I do like
a nice shirt. The water here is just right.
I have better breasts than most.

February 23, 2007

Deep Super*

Brad rushes to her side

I travel alone. It is hard to keep up
with past friends. Years pass.
No one flashes her vulva at me but Britney.
Jen is so lonely. I wish they would stop saying that.
Though it is true she no longer seems to shine as she did.
He stripped the gold from her, that one.
We all want to be Ambassadors of Peace.
Everywhere you go
someone tries to give you their child.
How many children could Oprah have fed
with her school for the elite? What's wrong with Mississippi?
Oh Nicole, Oh Kiera, we're all sometimes starving at the feast.
You don't have to shave your head to go to rehab.

*www.thesuperficial.com

February 19, 2007