She has been alone for twelve years,
Remembers only the birthdays of dead people.
She shared one with Birdie, her brother’s wife,
who spoke in questions and smiles,
and said of the only daring skirt she ever made,
“Interesting pattern choice for you, Montie,”
while blowing cigarette smoke past her ear. Continue reading “Birthday Skirt”
Tag: family
April Magician
Houdini was an Aries like me. So was Charlie Chaplin.
Traditional straightjacket magic, magic of
A hop and fluster. I did not have magic—
Fire sign with no magic. I have no cape
With moons and shooting stars. Handcuffs
Stymie me. I cannot walk with my feet
Splayed. Yesterday, I sat on the porch Continue reading “April Magician”
T-Ball
The boys running the bases like rabbits
scurry to far-off places, not moving
toward targets—just moving. Montie Jean
recalls the ballgames she played as a child
in the dusty pasture where milo died
early. She can’t believe she was ever
as small as these kids. One sits on the bench
crying. Another has smeared snot and dirt
up the side of his face and into his hair. Continue reading “T-Ball”
Blind in the Hall
The way of this life is a tenuous one.
My son flirts with joy at a cherry popsicle
in the afternoon and that evening
must stand his ground in the backyard,
when he tells his new friend Stuart,
I am not a baby. You think I’m a baby.
The way of this life is a tenuous one. Continue reading “Blind in the Hall”
My Brother’s Glass Banana
When he was 10 and I was 13,
He pulled out all the stitches
From my baseball glove
And strangled a GI Joe with them
Because I called him a pansy
And a lily-ass and something else
I don’t remember anymore. Continue reading “My Brother’s Glass Banana”
To Day
Here is what I bring to you, Day:
A restlessness haunting the hours,
Like the moon behind the trees—here,
And here, now here. A belief
In the core, the place of origin,
Creek water walked in as a child,
The dirt tracks toy Corvettes made,
My son’s laughter exploding
From a pile of leaves we never
Gathered in fall. I give this all up Continue reading “To Day”
Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry 