tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65227207787383091232023-11-16T05:57:16.832-05:00Strange and Potent MixturePoems and writings by Ami MattisonAmi Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-43091897996773632622012-03-13T15:15:00.001-04:002012-03-13T15:15:14.491-04:00I<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: small;">something particular and peculiar.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">without you to give it something</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">to speak of. <span> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">And perhaps that’s why it envies </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">a horizon, the wide, taunting sky, </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">all of it.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">© Ami Mattison </span></span><br />
<br />Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-28472402882147582922012-03-01T14:52:00.000-05:002012-03-01T14:52:01.274-05:00Blue in Detroit<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Blue is patches of sky, hovering over </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Detroit at the cusp of fall, hung by God </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
for a people hungry for wider living </div>
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and open spaces, not this crumbling </div>
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concrete and burnt out houses across the street </div>
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from the elementary school playground.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
That blue will become a polluted orange-pink, </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
a strange beauty that’ll make your eyes water </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
and fill you with longing for familiarity,</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
not this city of strangers who never loved me.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I’m not seeking pity. </div>
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</div>
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
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I’m telling you how blue sinks into my belly—</div>
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Coltrane’s blue, starting slow as train wheels, </div>
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chugging along until it drives full steam, taking me </div>
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back in my mind home to Alabama, to a girlhood</div>
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that no longer exists except in melodies and riffs.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Blue is a pretty word people use when they don’t know </div>
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how it feels to spend another insomniac night </div>
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staring at a knife, just in case you can’t </div>
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wake to another grey day of dying.</div>
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<br /></div>
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When I tell them I can’t take another twenty-four hours,</div>
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they prescribe more pills and raise the dose.</div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s no coincidence that the pills are blue</div>
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and pink and yellow and white, the colors of sweet candy,
</div>
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but tasting metallic like a razor blade or blood.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Every morning, I hold those pills in the palm of my hand</div>
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and consider the irony: how insane my sanity is</div>
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tiny and crushable and housed in small </div>
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plastic bottles I throw away every month.</div>
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<br /></div>
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the skin alongside a blue vein, </div>
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barely missing the pulse. </div>
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That scar marks my wrist, reminds me </div>
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I’m still alive and I have a choice </div>
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writing this poem while looking out </div>
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my window at a patch of blue sky in Detroit. </div>
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to survive another few seconds, while waiting </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">© </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Ami Mattison</span><span style="font-family: "MS Shell Dlg 2","sans-serif"; font-size: 8.5pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">For <a href="http://dversepoets.com/" target="_blank">D'Verse Poets</a> </span>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-62894257060484496002012-02-14T06:50:00.000-05:002012-02-14T16:50:05.200-05:00Victoria Hernandez Dances<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
They say I never dance</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
at school assemblies—all the boys </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
wearing pressed and tucked shirts </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
and the girls, their hair pinned back</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
with clips and bows. But they don’t know</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
I dance with her in unlit spaces. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Under the bleachers in the corner, </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
she takes my hand and twirls me around, </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
embraces my waist with her thin, dark arms, </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
and silently dips me backwards. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
Her body becomes a comma, and my heart,</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
sound flooding my ears, pauses when </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
she pulls my body so close to hers,</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
then steps away, and I breathe </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
the Salsa beats again, watch her hips sway, </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
a primal music pulsing in my veins. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
She burns deep,</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
deeper in my belly. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
And no one knows </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
how our love is beats </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
and melodies and doesn’t need </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
to speak or be seen. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You never dance</i>,
they say. But I do. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
I dance and dance and dance. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
© Ami Mattison</div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-27500121878933967632011-05-03T05:25:00.000-04:002011-05-03T05:25:35.304-04:00I want a poem<a href="http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3437987/poem" title="Wordle: poem"><img alt="Wordle: poem" src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/3437987/poem" style="border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 4px;" /></a><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I wanna poem to tell me</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">it’ll be okay.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I want a poem to say </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">all the stray words </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">stuck in my throat.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I want to toke on it, roll </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the bits into thin paper, light </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the end, and inhale long.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yeah, I want a strong antidote</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of meter and rhyme, telling me </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">this time hopelessness is just </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a long word for lost faith.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So gimme a poem.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Show me how the grey expanse</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">gives way to cerulean.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Give me words I can chew,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">metaphors I can swallow,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">images I can drink.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cover me with a blanket</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">crocheted with rhyme.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I need the measure of poetry,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to rid me of this stilted, prose life.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I’m holding a blade to my neck,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and that’s not a metaphor.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So please, gimme a poem.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">©Ami Mattison</span></span></div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-64492248875451917542011-04-30T19:40:00.000-04:002011-04-30T19:40:08.568-04:00Awakening<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Some nights when I’m half-asleep,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I hear Mama’s voice say my name.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Other times, it’s Daddy, calling out.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I awake, half-expecting to find <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">myself again in the back yard, hiding </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">behind the overgrown honeysuckle</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">intertwined and clinging to chain-link.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Mama holds open the kitchen door.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Or Daddy unlatches the fence gate.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And I, a half-wild child, emerge,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">long dark hair tangled with burrs,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">palms and knees stained red with clay.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">II.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I want to say these are memories</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">but they may be hallucinations.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I’m uncertain about the difference,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">just as I was uncertain where I was</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">when I awakened from a book,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">one or the other saying my name</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">harshly: Your granddaddy is talking to you.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Papa’s voice, I don’t remember.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Only his decrepit hands, flashbacks</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to the laundry room or the storage shed</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">where he lured me with the promise</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of puppies and leeched my girlhood instead.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">III.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sundays, Mama cooked deep-fried chicken</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">collard greens, field peas, and cornbread.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">These smells could be memories or dreams.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sometimes, I awaken at night, craving </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a full belly, sleep-walk to the kitchen, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">awaken to find it dark, empty, and useless.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">IV.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">You need to come home, Daddy says,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">his voice cracking over the phone.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Come home, Mama says, half-asking</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">half-telling me what I should do.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But home is twenty-seven years ago,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and I’ve been departing ever since.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I’m a memory to them. They’ve hung a ghost-</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">portrait of four-year-old me over the mantle,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a kind of memorial to the child who never returned.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When I’m visiting, sometimes I get lost in that girl—</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">remember the blue barrette clipping her dark hair</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to one side, the indigo dress she wore for Easter—</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">until I awaken to my reflection in the curved glass,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">startled by the stranger I’ve become.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">V.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Tonight, I sat in a field of wildflowers</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">lacing the stems and weeds into a wreath.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The river runs just north of the field</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and the old bridge where I once balanced</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">along the broken planks is still there.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I left the field, flowers crowning my head, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and I balanced again upon the bridge, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">trying to get to the other side.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Come back, they call to me.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And I awaken, sit up in bed, wildflowers</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">falling from my hair. I am half-wild</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and smelling of earth and honeysuckle.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I rise and run to them.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-16219537721321274932011-04-28T23:28:00.000-04:002011-04-28T23:28:40.684-04:00I'm Hungry<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><div class="MsoNoSpacing">The coffee maker</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">and microwave died.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">The oven is treacherous.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">I haven’t washed dishes</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">in four months. </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">I have one pot, one spoon, and one knife</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">I use over and over again.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">I’m subsisting on peanut butter</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">sandwiches and cold canned food.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">My stomach won’t stop growling.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Sometimes, I wake at night, eating</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">my bed sheets.</div></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br />
</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">© Ami Mattison</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For G-Man's <a href="http://g-man-mrknowitall.blogspot.com/2011/04/friday-flash-55_28.html" target="_blank">Flash Friday 55</a></span></span></div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-48935344895943319412011-04-27T17:04:00.001-04:002011-04-27T21:24:00.049-04:00When We Are Onions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAO5NYC6pb_D4G-7m8q1NXKIs4C4JlV4Q84ky4YOgAlyFhEa2dS-iRc-ZntuQTdDmjjwO0oeEwEjU0jRk2FB3WN2SdB1w0vfAezHYUoq7PpPrAj5DAQUVxsc2Ho-TWp2xSLpG73vCCr6M/s1600/onions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAO5NYC6pb_D4G-7m8q1NXKIs4C4JlV4Q84ky4YOgAlyFhEa2dS-iRc-ZntuQTdDmjjwO0oeEwEjU0jRk2FB3WN2SdB1w0vfAezHYUoq7PpPrAj5DAQUVxsc2Ho-TWp2xSLpG73vCCr6M/s320/onions.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If you pull back </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the layers, toss them </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">aside, you’ll find nothing</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">at the center.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It’s a joke.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And it makes you cry.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Some people need</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the pieces to be</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">symmetrical, but me,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I just chop and chop</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">into sloppy bits.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It’s for the taste anyway.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Not that I would eat one raw.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But in Georgia during summer</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sliced Vidalias and fresh tomatoes</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">appear on supper plates.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But both of those are side dishes,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and this is about the center</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of it, which can’t be located.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What lies between us could be</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a field or a river or just a dusty</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">country road.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But instead, it’s complicated and striated</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and so abstract that I have no idea</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">what I’m talking about.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Still, I have to say, this not-knowing</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a thing is what makes mothers weep</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and lovers sigh.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It’s potent.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Kinda like those kitchen fumes</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that make eyes tear up</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">even when there’s nothing</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">particularly sad.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">At the center of us goes unnamed,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">not really nothing or a thing, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">but a no-thing.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But then, I have no idea</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">what I’m talking about.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Photo courtesy of </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/drb62/" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">DRB62</span></a><br />
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</div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-47263779138203287572011-04-26T22:53:00.000-04:002011-04-26T22:53:25.314-04:00Privilege<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The crux of our middle-</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">class lives folds into every day</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">items, puzzle blocks we buy when </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">some of the pieces are missing. So much </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">depends on the picture of necessity,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">desire and the pieces </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">we accumulate: cars, furniture, appliances,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">collections of what we need </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and what we want, fitted into</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">wooden frames and bricks, mortared </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">into homes we own. How lovely </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">those drapes are and that landscape</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">hanging on the wall. The precise </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">measurements of how we live</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">depends upon what’s missing</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">from the painting. Cars, furniture, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">appliances, the stuff of what </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">we pay for, counting our gains,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">our losses, wanting</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to balance the ledger </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of who we are and what </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">we believe we deserve.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span> </div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-88054182326511468612011-04-25T23:57:00.000-04:002011-04-25T23:57:30.240-04:00Revival<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I cut my wrist with an Exacto blade, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">made an incision to bilge the blue vein</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">so I might see my blood, reassure myself </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">it was pulsing.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When the wound bled wet and red,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I wrapped it tight with a kitchen cloth,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">guarded my sleep throughout the night,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and swore never again to come so close</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to killing.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The cutting was a bad experiment.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But how else might I feel the aching, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">except to excise it from beneath my skin?</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">How else to recount and atone for my sins, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">except to slay myself for God?</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They told me I needed better coping</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">skills and meds, but really the bleeding</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">was enough to engulf the anguish</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and flood my veins with vital signs</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of living again.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Marking my skin, the scar is now</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">as thin as that blade, drawing a line</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">between dying and survival, reminding me </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">revival is as close as my wrist.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></span>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-45521425652524281632011-04-24T11:55:00.000-04:002011-04-24T11:55:13.984-04:00Absent-minded<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOSFeRbXhonXUgWXCg4ZUYD4yVzvzjeHKCCH2KZnSYBmJTQ3Tdr0-jQRR92N__ZeJ6_6DEdoV7u7s9MdphLWzqzeUU56BOqLD6ymAAf6hfvjYjSlAw6RbnHC-eaMansqjO0xf4s1670tI/s1600/GregLaychak-1020675.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOSFeRbXhonXUgWXCg4ZUYD4yVzvzjeHKCCH2KZnSYBmJTQ3Tdr0-jQRR92N__ZeJ6_6DEdoV7u7s9MdphLWzqzeUU56BOqLD6ymAAf6hfvjYjSlAw6RbnHC-eaMansqjO0xf4s1670tI/s320/GregLaychak-1020675.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Death is not a reality, but the absence of a reality.</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> ~Thomas Merton</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They say I’m not dead yet,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">but surely this is hell.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Not the inferno they preach,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">but a sterile hallway, narrow</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and lengthening beyond </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">my poor eyesight.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They say at the end of it,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">there is light, but I’ve been there</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and I can tell you, it’s a white wall</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">decorated with an oil-painted face </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of God, hung to remind me of his absence,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">how even he’s abandoned this place.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They tell me it’s Autumn. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So the ginkgos must be dressed in dying</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">leaves, baring branches as spindly</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and useless as my bony limbs.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Who cares about the senseless seasons?</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Only those who want to believe</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">there’s a reason to live past Winter</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">need the consolation of renewal. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Me, I’m waiting for tardy death</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and wanting them to cover the damn window</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">so the sun stops mocking dawn and dusk</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and finally shrivels the husk of belief in hours</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and days, finally sheds the pretense of light.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They say dying is the absence of living,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">but I can tell you it’s merely relief</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">from the illusions of concrete</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">things, like these brick walls and</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">this joke of a windowed view.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, I sit here counting on absent-</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">minded death, hoping it too </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">has not abandoned me, wanting </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that welcomed embrace when finally,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">finally I become nothing.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">For One Stop Poetry's </span><a href="http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/04/sunday-photography-interview-greg-laychak-poetry-challenge.html" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sunday Picture Prompt Challenge</span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Photo courtesy of </span><a href="http://www.greglaychak.com/" target="_"blank""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Greg Laychack</span></a>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-10413063186821243992011-04-22T07:34:00.001-04:002011-04-22T08:28:43.056-04:00Jesus Weeps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMzzRhb4MB2CXLN0gBQqvDB9oqu4P71V15J59N1aC1hnltW3rwbxqMPiiKQ08b1q_AaxLwOofuYju9TWj8naJHbotkjuZm5F1KSl7eRLEyVRvC92BDR0b5h-ApEJkzBJ_dq2dzd1BWuxo/s1600/Maria_Magdalene_crucifixion_detail.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMzzRhb4MB2CXLN0gBQqvDB9oqu4P71V15J59N1aC1hnltW3rwbxqMPiiKQ08b1q_AaxLwOofuYju9TWj8naJHbotkjuZm5F1KSl7eRLEyVRvC92BDR0b5h-ApEJkzBJ_dq2dzd1BWuxo/s320/Maria_Magdalene_crucifixion_detail.jpeg" width="225" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><div class="MsoNoSpacing">How many times I died</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">I lost count. With every plea,</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">I gave a piece of me.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Water into wine, men’s madness </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">cast upon swine—miracles </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">emerged from flesh, </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">blood, tooth, bone.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">She was the only one</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">who loved me.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">I died a thousand deaths, </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">was reborn when she kissed</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">my feet with her hair.</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">© Ami Mattison<br />
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For G-Man's <a href="http://g-man-mrknowitall.blogspot.com/2011/04/good-friday-flash-55.html" target="_blank">Good Friday Flash 55</a></div></span><br />
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</div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-63448830857575563582011-04-20T16:52:00.000-04:002011-04-20T16:52:52.322-04:00Stars on Alabama<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuG1yebfxJ1QHtqzPeiEfZcpeMPTSN-xyUS_Ix_GaT-E3D2_xMjJSQRLhFHDQZ5EKJ2L4VOuENGntthc-xG0d-dEd6TLC6ysq3Jz5I6nbLx2xVJObgHaG7XyX_WgllsYmuHSfGZBIUXJ0/s1600/fireworks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuG1yebfxJ1QHtqzPeiEfZcpeMPTSN-xyUS_Ix_GaT-E3D2_xMjJSQRLhFHDQZ5EKJ2L4VOuENGntthc-xG0d-dEd6TLC6ysq3Jz5I6nbLx2xVJObgHaG7XyX_WgllsYmuHSfGZBIUXJ0/s320/fireworks.jpg" width="196" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We lived our little drama.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We kissed in a field of white.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And stars fell on Alabama last night.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> ~Mitchell Paris</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Oh, those stars over Alabama. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">How they fell in tender light </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">upon the fields of soft, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">white buds, plucked</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">by your dark, scarred fingers </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to show me the stubborn </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">seeds nestled there.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">How the moon creases </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the ochre sky tonight, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">how I can taste red clay </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in the cracks of my lips </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">takes me back to you,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to your dim room where </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">your mama’s quilt dressed </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">your sentimental bed, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and the smell of scotch </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and weed wafted </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">like your fingers along my skin.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We slow-danced the blues, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and our lips pressed together </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">kept the secret between us: </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">How you could’ve been hanged for birth </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and I could’ve been burned for love. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But we never spoke of this, only met</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">as the quad tower tolled the library’s closing—</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">you, gunning your daddy’s red Ford and me,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">breathless and laughing, running to catch up.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">You drove us to that field, gave me </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">something soft, and then hard-pressed </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">between your naked hands, I shuddered</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">white stars in a black sky. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Remember this, I whispered. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I’ll remember this, you said. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And you cradled my head in your neck, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">chewed on a blade of grass while I inhaled </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the woods of you, and we both just let it be, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">let it all go without words.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Flickr photo courtesy of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/katieharbath/" target="_blank">Katie Harbath</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><br />
</span></div><object height="349" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6ibV3tCDvd8?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6ibV3tCDvd8?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="349"></embed></object>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-3001911835161318432011-04-20T07:29:00.002-04:002011-04-21T07:38:32.563-04:00Ridin' the Blue Train<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzD2h9Xxkgjmb2ZyV-LlMD4QkWoZc6Mi7nAvd_Wd9UDTfBDEwdbhzkowQT0GZBPslErHHA6RRV7IRHZtv1Fgp2LVVAvK00GrGyLSvpz-LOLqDqxBWtzKcT7g4E8U-yro7jek3BOaKm-ww/s1600/John-Coltrane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzD2h9Xxkgjmb2ZyV-LlMD4QkWoZc6Mi7nAvd_Wd9UDTfBDEwdbhzkowQT0GZBPslErHHA6RRV7IRHZtv1Fgp2LVVAvK00GrGyLSvpz-LOLqDqxBWtzKcT7g4E8U-yro7jek3BOaKm-ww/s320/John-Coltrane.jpg" width="273" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Better catch that steel-wheeled ride</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">‘fore it takes off and slides on down</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">those tracks ‘cuz it’s a one way ticket,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and there ain’t no goin’ back.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Jump that rail and don’t tell Mama</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">cuz she don’t ‘bide by rattlin’ rooms</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and shakin’ hips, but baby that song makes </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">you move in all the right ways of wrong.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And I’ll take back all dem days I lived</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">‘fore you cuz ain’t nothin’ I wouldn’t do</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to swing you once ‘round the floor.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Gonna throw open all the doors so folks</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">can flock inside and heat up this joint,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">pass it ‘round, so cool, so hot. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I got five dollars in my pocket, just enough</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">for a shot of juice. So, you can break loose,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">lift that skirt just enough to see yo’ knees</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and laugh when I beg please for more.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Hear that horn, baby, feel that thump. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Trane’s got a riff just for you and me.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">He cooks that beat ‘til all you can do</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is snap yo’ fingers and nod yo’ head.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Everyone said the man was goin’ places</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">but the only place I wanna go</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is a straight-shot towards your South,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">yo’ Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana too.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We’ll ride this blue train beneath the moon,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the tall pines runnin’ alongside and stars</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">burstin’ into white heat like my heart.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Take my hand, baby, and let’s fling</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ourselves into this black night, show ‘em</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">how it’s done when the wheels slow down</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and the bass is just right. The two of us</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">spinning like old vinyl ‘til the music stops.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And we scratch a powerful itch ‘til</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the needle drops, and we ride </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that train again. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<object height="349" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/S1GrP6thz-k?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/S1GrP6thz-k?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="349"></embed></object><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">For One Stop Poetry's </span><a href="http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/04/welcome-to-one-shot-wednnesday-week-42.html" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One Shot Wednesday</span></a>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-53639023734970113652011-04-19T14:16:00.000-04:002011-04-19T14:16:20.244-04:00Easy as her silence is<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Ds8L4SE1aab9C2bkep9k1sGlL1Dn4K4gqz5FDoWmPFYP_pgedMam6a4Jw2b3fzhzmG-1oJM1V1DIKTw1K3mKFCPpfgw8ReiWn_drKCWu5iDAO-6KNi01qPpi9jkv3nWZReA4X0Ne-nc/s1600/silence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Ds8L4SE1aab9C2bkep9k1sGlL1Dn4K4gqz5FDoWmPFYP_pgedMam6a4Jw2b3fzhzmG-1oJM1V1DIKTw1K3mKFCPpfgw8ReiWn_drKCWu5iDAO-6KNi01qPpi9jkv3nWZReA4X0Ne-nc/s320/silence.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">No one knows that she talks</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to me, spills her days in lovely</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">chatter-songs that wake me</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">every morning and bed me at night.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">With others, silence marks her </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">as aloof or elusive or even enigmatic,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">but she’s not really a question.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a name='more'></a></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">More a comma, a pause</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">when she crooks her neck </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">slightly to the left, weighing</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">what to say and decides to say</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">nothing. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Why fill silence with words when </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">it isn’t empty of meaning? She asks</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">for the curve of my inner ear </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">its fine vibrating bones, not my poetry.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Which makes me uncertain until</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">she smiles, leans in and mouths my name,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">its vowels and open sounds.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They say her native language is written to mimic</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the mouth in speech. How to open the lips</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and where to put the tongue are half-lines</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and circles, illustrating human sounds.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Her voice brushes my skin, soft</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">as breath, quiet as a heartbeat,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and this is how I hear her.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></span>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-72302839895662153972011-04-18T06:08:00.000-04:002011-04-18T06:08:47.750-04:00After Her<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh67aSC5AT9BLxjow1ij82g6X591ggN5j6ZrC3NJSm6z9AJO8U45eVqF0Tb68K0XF5vs9xLPFh9pHd0F-n7H4qeMCTZ0AQgrcHdSJXx5eib7XZxTTFEtV0Q6KuWY-EGrtmEtQUYwGdxE9U/s1600/grave+statue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh67aSC5AT9BLxjow1ij82g6X591ggN5j6ZrC3NJSm6z9AJO8U45eVqF0Tb68K0XF5vs9xLPFh9pHd0F-n7H4qeMCTZ0AQgrcHdSJXx5eib7XZxTTFEtV0Q6KuWY-EGrtmEtQUYwGdxE9U/s400/grave+statue.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I am underground where the roots</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of trimmed conifers strangle water from clay</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and daylight filters through half-drawn window blinds, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">still dusty with the lives of strangers. My grey face</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">reflected in that window becomes gaunt and ghosted.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Outside the cinderblock walls, ambulances</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and fire trucks streak towards the hospital</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">or away. Red flashes light up the night and whining</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sirens wrench my dreams into deafening wails.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I burrow here in this basement along 13 Mile Road,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a short stretch between life and death, and die</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">each afternoon only to wake again to black mornings.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Friends send wreaths of flowers, propped</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">against the door, leave plastic-wrapped casseroles</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">with small notes of condolences. Everything rots</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">with love.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I wonder sometimes if God resides in the dim</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">light bulb that hangs from my ceiling, and whether</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I might come closer to heaven if I noose myself there.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But I am too sad, even for staged dying</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and instead I improvise living, listen to jazz,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">mark my days by etching lines in notebook paper,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">connecting them with curves until poetry covers</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the blank space, and I feel written.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Later I will chisel this into stone, leave </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">this place, and go home.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">©Ami Mattison</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Photo courtesy of </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/howzey/" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">howzey</span></a></div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-86734364187969114172011-04-16T23:56:00.002-04:002011-04-16T23:56:53.180-04:00When we are gods<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the terrible eye turned into</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a vertical slit, squinting </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">at the straight, neat lines of who </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">we believe we are.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">hard dark crossbars above us and below us. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I, I , I, we chant.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ami Mattison</span>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-91138845741387368772011-04-15T22:25:00.001-04:002011-04-16T07:29:09.544-04:00If They Knew<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF0mcWUHjaAfggxiEbEv7XewV3o345qTjkReWTluBaE1lll1T6v822EM90Uitfd2grK67BNB9wplYzWN83tXyHJbdfJWvQQL1R9pA43e2ooX9zU_LCYuBguPf6QdwIKXPnTRJgpEgymkY/s1600/Cardinal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF0mcWUHjaAfggxiEbEv7XewV3o345qTjkReWTluBaE1lll1T6v822EM90Uitfd2grK67BNB9wplYzWN83tXyHJbdfJWvQQL1R9pA43e2ooX9zU_LCYuBguPf6QdwIKXPnTRJgpEgymkY/s320/Cardinal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The wide-eyed moon lights<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">winter’s midnight sky. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One word changes the season, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the hour, the shape of the moon.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">You cannot say, <i>it’s cold</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">You must let the cardinal, clinging</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to a bare branch outside a frost-</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">kissed window tell them the freeze</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is almost over. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And you cannot speak of love at all.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Certainly, not heartbreak.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Instead, you must settle for how</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the cardinal always flies away,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">how the moon recedes in daylight.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If they knew </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">they wouldn’t ask </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">how long </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a poem takes. A half-hour</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">becomes a decade when you’re</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">rapt by the words formed on her lips.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If they only knew, they wouldn’t ask.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Who wants to know how you pull</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">words from your jaw, raw and flesh-ridden.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Who wants to know how everything</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is always about her anyway.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Certainly, not me, gazing out</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">into the uncertain dawn.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yes, least of all me, abandoned now </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">by the cardinal and the moon.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Flickr photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/goellnitz/">RunnerJenny</a></span></span>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-65816319108704248182011-04-14T21:31:00.000-04:002011-04-14T21:31:24.623-04:00Domestic Disturbance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid5hjH1je-h3J4DGgLd4N0Zz0XX4lEYR8U0kLpZsyR8WApmBm2xkFF33nbjym9MZeNZ2bP2JkhOoYUOhxX42pdjiWPfVsnNbPYf8Pm12IPokVsnPl5jJQKjFWz3cg533-kTG310VhVePI/s1600/wedding+rings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid5hjH1je-h3J4DGgLd4N0Zz0XX4lEYR8U0kLpZsyR8WApmBm2xkFF33nbjym9MZeNZ2bP2JkhOoYUOhxX42pdjiWPfVsnNbPYf8Pm12IPokVsnPl5jJQKjFWz3cg533-kTG310VhVePI/s320/wedding+rings.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Upstairs neighbors are at it again.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"> <br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Stomping, thrown objects, and loud</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">thuds shake my ceiling. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Get out! Get out of here!</i> She screams.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But he won’t leave, not until he’s taken</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a piece of the wall and her with him.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Later the ceiling will shake again</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">headboard thumping, bed springs</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">creaking so many terrible moans.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">For G-Man's <a href="http://g-man-mrknowitall.blogspot.com/2011/04/friday-flash-55_14.html">Flash Friday 55</a></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Photo Courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/grandvelasrivieramaya/">Grand Velas Riviera Maya</a></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-44300272336875947732011-04-13T17:43:00.000-04:002011-04-13T17:43:25.079-04:00If you want it to burn<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Gather the thin, fragile lies, slipping </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">from her lips, like dry twigs fallen </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">beneath low-lying branches.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Strike flint against the bone</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of your bitterness. Set aflame</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the recanted kindling and blow</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">hot breath across the splintered</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">wood, seasoned with mistrust.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Stoke it with your anger and watch the fire</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">burn steadily down to cold and dying embers. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Place the ashes on your head, smear </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">them across your lips, so you might </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">remember her kiss.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-52221366856012940572011-04-12T21:50:00.000-04:002011-04-12T21:50:11.731-04:00Plague<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">My blackened shroud</div><div class="MsoNormal">Burns to ash, wind-blown</div><div class="MsoNormal">Across deserts</div><div class="MsoNormal">And oceans</div><div class="MsoNormal">It summons a plague of rats</div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Gnawing on marrow and grief</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Ami Mattison</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">A Shadorma for One Stop Poetry's <a href="http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/04/monday-one-stop-poetry-form-guest-host-anne-welch-shadorma.html">Monday Form</a></span>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-12033602918456689472011-04-11T15:41:00.001-04:002011-04-12T21:28:49.480-04:00Of Miracles<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Commuting cars along 13 Mile Road</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">sound like the rush of the ocean waves,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">tumbling at low tide, and I am taken</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">to the seashore where you combed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">for shelled treasures and washed them</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">in wet salt. Your bare feet awash</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">in the surf, you bowed your head</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">to the sun.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Time never curls back, and I will never</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">again stand on the edge of the world</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">between earth and ocean nor burn</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">beneath your radiance, your smile,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">curving and lifted when you look at me.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I am land-locked now, living in a crummy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">basement, bereft of sun and sky and you,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">wrapping daylight around my dank nights.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">My grief wanders there into early morning,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">stands in the middle of the road and looks up</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">towards blackness.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><i>I do not believe in miracles or accidents</i>,*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">only the star, perhaps a planet, peeking</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">through a sudden parting of clouds</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">and the swerving car, horn sounding long,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">wheels braking hard, but too hurried to stop.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I watch the tail lights fade into the distance,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">return to my basement where I sleep hard</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">and do not dream of seashores.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Ami Mattison</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">* Excerpt by Sylvia Plath</span>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-1856154871121292442011-04-09T18:52:00.001-04:002011-04-09T18:52:58.325-04:00Touchdown Jesus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4qFUk5P_ANTlIiZ1r9QxFupmP1152G0FrXanFERM3c2ah5vbXxOJSC72zScyisS0xjpFFCZuEjEWlevopqlLo7DUqNXjAbr-NwlvYkznDkq2yYHqrqEPciqvjlG7fKo-gFqc0FJNSPfE/s1600/touchdown+jesus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4qFUk5P_ANTlIiZ1r9QxFupmP1152G0FrXanFERM3c2ah5vbXxOJSC72zScyisS0xjpFFCZuEjEWlevopqlLo7DUqNXjAbr-NwlvYkznDkq2yYHqrqEPciqvjlG7fKo-gFqc0FJNSPfE/s400/touchdown+jesus.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Lightning struck Jesus, a stone bust</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ascending from a fountain of faith </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">along I-75 in Ohio. His arms, six stories </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">high and stretching towards heaven, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">he was a joke among locals. He suffered</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">eighteen-wheeler exhaust and finger-pointing.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">His pleading expression was immoveable </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">until God’s jagged fire set him aflame </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and burned him to the ground.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Solid Rock churchgoers were undaunted</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in their belief, took the burning as God’s way</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of saying they needed a new Jesus, this one</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">standing, full-figured, his arms outstretched </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">again towards God and begging to be spared</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">from natural disasters.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The resurrection took place on a bright autumn day.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Folks parked, pulled out grills and set up chairs.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ate popcorn and prayed God would bless them</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">for their devotion with lives as large as Jesus.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-69405092408304067532011-04-08T23:27:00.002-04:002011-04-10T05:59:07.372-04:00The Moon's Eyelid<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrBX7yMue9K1il2k7fegffpav7yNGXkgRik_lL3r2n79GqfdGC7ZpehvmWrSETH7s-EOyKNWhLI46fyDA2GhZ76qwGROfKx7DnE9gnXd6jc8VqrwCgrHJlRLFaeZMdViYlvorrrrUKoT0/s1600/full+moon+by+qwincowper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrBX7yMue9K1il2k7fegffpav7yNGXkgRik_lL3r2n79GqfdGC7ZpehvmWrSETH7s-EOyKNWhLI46fyDA2GhZ76qwGROfKx7DnE9gnXd6jc8VqrwCgrHJlRLFaeZMdViYlvorrrrUKoT0/s400/full+moon+by+qwincowper.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They have been speaking</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">for years, telling her who</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">she is and what she should do.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Mostly, she ignores them.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The new doctor asks</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">if she has a superpower</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the doctor should be aware of.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">She tells the doctor: <i>The moon’s eyelid <o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is wide open tonight. I can see that much.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The doctor nods, makes a note in the chart.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">62 year old white female<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">suffers from schizophrenia disorder.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">She decides not to tell the doctor</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">she can see the words before</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the doctor writes them.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Words are all she has</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and she uses them carefully.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Do you have any medical complaints?</i> The doctor asks.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Which is a trick question.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Last year, when she stepped on a nail,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">she went to the emergency room </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and told them her foot was hurting</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">so bad she couldn’t walk on it.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They wrote in her chart:</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Patient suffers from the delusion<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that she can’t walk.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">She pulled the nail out herself,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">sucked the wound, dressed it</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and limped for a month.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Just because they can’t understand her</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">they think she’s crazy. And it’s true</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">she has a penchant for creating new words,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and she prefers her own language to theirs.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Patient is incoherent and speaks gibberish<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">despite no finding of neurological problems.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This new doctor is nice enough, pretty.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">She can tell the doctor cares. But she’s had enough; </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">so when the doctor leaves and before the nurse returns, </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">she pilfers the papers. But doesn’t even bother to hide them </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">under her gown. That’s how much they don’t pay attention.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Later, she chuckles when she hears the doctor</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">asking the nurse about her chart.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The nurse is distressed, knows she’s in trouble:</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It wasn’t in the room; so I thought you took it with you.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The nurse’s whining makes her cackle louder.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>The night body flings itself into the burning fire</i>, she guffaws</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and slaps her thigh.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When they show up, they find the remains</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of her chart under her pillow. She’d left it there</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">during her nap, after she’d scattered the papers</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">around the white room. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">They gather each sheet, gnawed</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and wet with spittle, the ink bled</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">words no longer decipherable.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Mrs. Woods, did you do this?</i> The doctor asks.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>I was hungry</i>, she replies, her smile stained black.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Okay</i>. The doctor says, hesistantly.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The doctor leaves the room, the mess </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of papers pressed to her chest.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And she giggles some more.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>The moon’s eyelid is wide open</i>, she sings.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Wide open, wide open. I can see that much.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/syncro/" target="_blank">Qwincowper</a></span></div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-31583313184263065882011-04-07T22:48:00.000-04:002011-04-07T22:48:51.260-04:00A Mother's Lament<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieeqhYTgvPAA38xD3gUn-mJY7GrMrMThRnkrLAoau8RoK5xFP2KaVeyBQr-GQTLBx1UkcQyM6SLZMy8tvt5yZXeZnB0vdLN-feaVyL54cb-ZkbKFIlXHyIowi_V5-EAbNO06YMmxpKyjs/s1600/girls+playin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieeqhYTgvPAA38xD3gUn-mJY7GrMrMThRnkrLAoau8RoK5xFP2KaVeyBQr-GQTLBx1UkcQyM6SLZMy8tvt5yZXeZnB0vdLN-feaVyL54cb-ZkbKFIlXHyIowi_V5-EAbNO06YMmxpKyjs/s400/girls+playin.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Light bulbs blew in room after room</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">while the houseplants withered and</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">died. I closed the window blinds</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">against the summer sun.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But I couldn’t block out the sounds</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">of the neighbors’ children. Their squealing</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">laughter interrupted my mid-day sleep,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and the high-pitched peals shattered</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">my glass dreams of holding tight</span></div><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">your small, live body.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">For G-Man's <a href="http://g-man-mrknowitall.blogspot.com/2011/04/friday-flash-55.html" target="_blank">Friday Flash 55</a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cheishichiyo/">cheishichiyo</a></span></div>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6522720778738309123.post-77730893968792512262011-04-06T22:17:00.002-04:002011-04-09T11:40:39.222-04:00Inevitable<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLoOFZydHfbicfaB0UtRDDLjanwtocnIxuGdmtqgFh7mkFDJsr8QABfqEZRzXX8F7PlJxoTFkLqL_WFOOdwdwIV2YVkBmX9usu7hLNCtZd3lm_9Id9R5Kykex9uGFmDGuhBGbWwsX1zY/s1600/dry+mud.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLoOFZydHfbicfaB0UtRDDLjanwtocnIxuGdmtqgFh7mkFDJsr8QABfqEZRzXX8F7PlJxoTFkLqL_WFOOdwdwIV2YVkBmX9usu7hLNCtZd3lm_9Id9R5Kykex9uGFmDGuhBGbWwsX1zY/s320/dry+mud.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I cleave to winter, unready</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">for the rains, washing away</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">all traces of the seasons we witnessed</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">together. My unclean palms pressed </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in prayer, I am penitent, mumbling </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">offerings to the gods for second chances,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">redemption from the ghost-bones of grief.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></o:p></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I cannot bear how time moves</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">from then to now to now and now,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">how the melt follows the freeze,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">how the purple tulips spring</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">from our abandoned garden, blooming</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">despite neglect, how this beauty hurts</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">my eyes, squinting into sudden sunlight.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But we are not flowers, wintered-over,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">nor the inevitable greenish buds, pushing</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">up through tree bark. We are not</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the dead grass that will green again</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">only to die and green again once more.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">No, we are wet as common garden mud, stuck</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">or cracking and turning to grit. We are borne </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">on the winds and carried across an ocean,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">where we once emerged, salty and breathing </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">painful air into nascent lungs. And we are</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the breath before dying.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">© Ami Mattison</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/druclimb/" target="_blank">Dru!</a></span></span>Ami Mattisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12391930163467566669noreply@blogger.com13