Another Sunset
This bald
horizon line,
teeth of far-off cliffs.
An orange that hurts, it is so bright—
the face of the sunset
makes its daily pilgrimage.
Only yesterday breathing in a sea.
Today, facing the hard stone
of an offshore outcropping.
We, the tender-hearted,
wait for you each evening.
We line our hearts up for you.
Over here, I’m the girl
In red sequins at the front,
waiting for your black velvet brother.
WOW #8. The purpose of this prompt is to white out words in a given passage or poem to create your own piece. I added a few words as well to make the poem mine. Here is the original:
February Elegy by Mary Jo Bang
© Mary Jo Bang
This bald year, frozen now in February.
This cold day winging over the ugly
Imperfect horizon line,
So often a teeth line of ten buildings.
A red flag flapping
In the wind. An orange curtain is noon.
It all hurts her eyes. This curtain is so bright.
Here is what is noticeably true: sight.
The face that looks back from the side
Of the butter knife.
A torn-bread awkwardness.
The mind makes its daily pilgrimage
Through riff-raff moments. Then,
Back into the caprice case to dream
In a circle, a pony goes round.
The circle’s association: There’s a center
To almost everything but never
Any certainty. Nothing is
More malleable than a moment. We were
Only yesterday breathing in a sea.
Some summer sun
Asked us over and over we went. The sand was hot.
We were only yesterday tender hearted
Waiting. To be something.
A spring. And then someone says, Sit down,
We have a heart for you to forget. A mind to suffer
With. So, experience. So, the circus tent.
You, over there, you be the girl
In red sequins on the front of a card selling love.
You, over there, you, in black satin.
You be the Maiden’s Mister Death.
.
The prompt word today was purple.
This truck drives through town at least once a week selling household cleaning products. I love it. There are some totally unexpected things piled on, as will become clear as we zoom in on it:
For Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge.
For Cee’s Daily Flower Challenge.
This gorgeous wisteria bush is outside Martin’s Restaurant where we hold our weekly writing group meetings. I’ll show the entire bush/vine at a later date.
For Cee’s daily Flower Challenge.
Bouquet
All the love that you confess
I fear is rendered meaningless
by the kiss you choose to press
near the neckline of my dress.
Hidden by collar, more or less,
the flower you rendered like counting coup
last night, now blooms in black and blue.
It was the least that you could do
once you’d gone through all your brew
and needed a diversion new.
When you said you’d shower me with flowers,
I envisioned vases, bowers.
Not this expression of your power
that lowered me from ivory tower
and taught me how to cringe and cower.
Each floral offering rendered anew
confirms what I must one day do.
each page in this scrapbook of you
written in a violent hue
on my body is one you’ll rue.
Once I’ve worked out my solution,
plotted and planned my retribution,
prepared the waters of my ablution,
then I will stage my revolution
and enact our dissolution.
I’ll pluck my flower from your bouquet
and be no more beneath your sway.
I will be happy and free and gay
with no nightly price to pay.
I really will. One day, one day
The prompt word today is meaningless.
Click on first photo to enlarge all.
https://bopaula.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/thursdays-special-winding/
Take Ordinary Caution
As pallbearer for my friend Larry,
I heard these deaths were ordinary
and if a fellow wished to parry
his own demise, he should be wary
of our town apothecary.
For each he saves, there’s one they bury.
That is why I’m sorta wary,
and why I find his sign so scary
and ironically cautionary
when I read it’s “Cash and Carry.”
The prompt word today was ordinary.
