his oxfords stroll down
piano key sidewalks
stepping to quarter notes
noir film
thoughts smoldering
behind him in cigarette smoke
and i think
in another life
we would have fallen in love
during wartime
Categories
Tag: War
Categories
bluegrass and white fences
Kentucky
has a way about it
that feels
both timeless
and impermanent
without ever
choosing a side
i put on some water for tea
then decided to mop the floors
of our new little nest
before the furniture gets carried in
before the rest of our lives happen
Murphy’s Oil Soap
water and sunshine into a bucket
carried through the echoing emptiness
of what will be
over original hardwood
placed there in 1941
i love to clean
the ritual of it
i write in my thoughts as i work
images painting themselves
into spaces around my gentle humming
spreading wet across the grain
seeing hands that mopped this floor
before me
wives husbands
fathers mothers
lovers and
put-upon teenagers
oh this house
has a history
built the year
the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor
it’s all still there
nailed down memories
layers of time entombed in wax
someone stood in that living room and heard
we dropped the bomb
we landed at Normandy
of a flag raised in Iwo-Jima
Kennedy was dead
Vietnam was a lost cause only good
for folded flags being handed to weeping mothers
Nixon was a crook
Reagan and John Lennon had been shot
the Berlin wall had fallen
i heard first steps
crying babies
crying widows
joyous laughter
say cheese
wine glasses clinking together
realizing with a smile
this floor is mine
the foundation of a family
and i will love it
then
the teapot
began to whistle
if mothers’ tears
could build palaces
the whole of humanity
would live as kings
my generation had no great war
until the towers fell
and the government invented one
then we were told
it’s not our fight
beyond the departures gate
at the airport
our struggle is removing our shoes
and grabby TSA agents
we never grew a victory garden
we never salvaged all our metal to make bullets
or watched the soldierly  Vietnam death toll
march across the bottom of our television screens
we were raised by Atari systems, Pop Rocks, Sweet Valley High books,
and Bob Barker’s skinny microphone
so forgive me, my fellow
generationally x’d out americans
if i don’t give a shit
about your opinions on the upcoming election
bloody sword
hearts unfurled
he was
my Agincourt
Categories
rations
how fitting
the etymology of the word
rations
the 18th century French
derived from the Latin
ratio
as there has never been enough
of you
or France
to go around
Perhaps…
it is a failing
of my English
blood,
but some men
have an enticing way
of looking
like a war
worth losing.
there are but three
unchangeable forces
known
in our meager lives
.
history is indestructible
dying
and the passage of time
.
that having been said
no wrongful death
may be avenged
with the death of another
.
if history has taught us
nothing else
it is that
war
makes murderers
of all humankind
i’m tired of being treated like a dirty hooker
because i feel free
to voice my opinions
joke
use clever little double entendres
assert myself as a woman
who admires the human form
both male and female
and shockingly
even my own voluptuous body
so i have dared to post photos of it
.
write poems
produce art
which express my feelings freely
.
i’m tired of waking up every morning
to private messages on facebook
from seemingly educated
and mostly married men
left in a drunken stupor
or on a predatory whim
hey baby
wanna fuck
cunt dick pussy
or various combinations thereof
.
no
no i don’t
nor do i want you to cum on my face
or any other part of my body
.
these digital pussies wouldn’t have the balls to behave in such a way
to my face
but social media and the internet
removes the barrier of decorum
it invites subterfuge, sickness, and depravity
desecration becomes acceptable
redefines morays
.
i have a folder in which i keep
eight years worth of facebook sexual violations
for legal record
which contains 71 unwanted dick pics
and two sets of tits
let’s not leave out the ladies
.
i have one creep who leaves nasty messages on my blog
using several different names
but the idiot doesn’t know
i traced his ip address
preparing for war
in a folder of every infraction
funny how serious they take internet stalking these days
.
and he’s not the first
and he won’t be the last
but this is a defect
of the information age
.
the criminal inside your home
invited by your mere existence
.
i didn’t ask for any of this
.
but i refuse to be less me
to accommodate their disease
.
this behavior speaks to the abuser
the vile betrayer
and says nothing about me
.
but what i will no longer do
is be polite
for the sake of decorum and decency
as these individuals
have never extended
those courtesies to me
.
so the next time you feel so inclined
prepare for the my wrath
prepare to receive
exactly what you deserve
vengeance
just before
i take my leave