Thursday, May 22, 2008

WRA

Watching a film on the

development of the Irish Republican Army

with my father on a lazy Sunday –

two brothers are divided between

north and south,

having started with the same cause.

In the end, one puts the other to

the firing squad and I say “look at

the foolishness of men” and

my father says “they are fighting for freedom.

Perhaps if women had fought for

their emancipation, it wouldn’t

have taken so long.”

And while I am angry at first

and say, “men are not a

system of government to overthrow,

they are everything

and how can we fight

our fathers, brothers, children”

there is another part of me

lost in the front lines of a

women’s battalion, women in arms

with uniforms and medals and

all the play and stage of war,

they are defending the city of ladies.

the silence after poetry

is it 10 seconds or maybe 4

the time spent in the

aftermath, the time it

takes for a poem to

leave the room having

arrived with arms folded

a poem always leaves

unguarded, open-palmed,

the last sentiment a

bird fluttering indoors,

it looks for the nearest exit

Saturday, May 17, 2008




Checked out this yet:

Poetry Foundation

30

At the close of May we

sit in deck swings and

wave, limp-wristed

at thick bees as they tumble

near our lemonades.

You say, “in the winter”

with a sun-ripened

tone and the first hot day

looks full of promise,

the sounds of lawnmowers

and yard work rising

all around us.

Friday, May 09, 2008

ecila