The Sunday Poem

Every Sunday I post an original poem.

The Sunday Poem: The Smile

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Mar 052006
 

She wore it like a sundress: loose
  And casual, unashamed of all
There was beneath. It fit, like blue
  Fits water — clinging close, a fall
Of folds and shining white. It dressed
  Her, danced her, light and lonely, held
Her in herself, contained her, less
  Than kisses, more than faces will.
She was no person. Her smile enclosed
  Her, was her; smiles do that, steal
Your body, take your eyes. She knows
  It happened; yes, it came off, sheer
And casual like a sundress, quick
  And lonely for an instant, not
A person, making love to lack.
  She ran away; she knew, she thought,
How smiles are, how waterfalls
  Splinter on rocks, how blue can fill
The eyes — how right she was — that all
  Smiles kiss more than true faces will.

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The Sunday Poem: At Age 6

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Feb 262006
 

Sometimes he spent hours
Pulling the thin ribbons of wild chives
From the clasp of earth,
And holding them in front of his face.
Each green vein wandered its traced line
From bulb to tapered tip, until
He brushed the dirt off and bit
The stalk in half, leaving frayed ends
Brushing his lips with sting.

There he’d lay, under the lilac
Bushes that grew tortuous like shadow-figure fingers –
I don’t remember what he saw
In the wild chives hidden in the lilacs
But who can blame him if at that moment
The world was bounded by his body
And even the paths of light down spicy veins
Were open to his understanding.

He stayed for some hours more, hunting
Raspberries, but by then the damage was done.

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Feb 192006
 

Apple isn’t very good at limericks. I mean, are “pirate” and “great” supposed to rhyme?
Yeesh.

The Age of the Computer Poem

It began when Apple let loose
With their copyright-defending Truth(tm):

Embedding bad rhymes within coding,
Chmodding the zeitgeist, foreboding,
And opening heretofore shut doors
That scare deep in multicores:
Whe’er pentameter’s big or little endian,
And runs on platforms Intellian…
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The Sunday Poem: Bridge Saddle

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Feb 122006
 

The bridge saddle is the piece of wood, ivory, or plastic that goes in the bridge on a guitar and holds the strings up away from the surface of the wood. It is easily removeable, usually 2-3 inches long, 1/8th of an inch wide, and 1 inch deep. It is also utterly necessary. The bridge is located directly under the soundhole, and holds one end of the strings firm.

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Feb 052006
 

Apologies in advance for a grim poem this week!

Outside School, Lima

I saw it on the flatbed: a horse
belly slit open, large chunks
of meat missing, hide flapping

like a flag, tail dripping off
the edge of the truck

cars jostled to follow it, every one
full of children like us, begging
their mothers, asking
for nightmares

I got none, but I have to tell
the story, or else the horse
died in vain, and the children
will have nothing to worship

no flag to follow
no rules to break and later obey

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