Every evening
she smokes cigarettes
on her front porch,
Riding that swing:
All of her gestures pause
She's not waiting
for that special someone's
home lighting torch.
If the swing could talk
it would say, "Because...
Because my friend
Time blindfolded the farm
animals the bonfire out front is hot
enough now to melt the toy metal trucks
Intense enough now to spontaneously
burst the swing, and the house with shed
into an embryonic ball of flames.
The only things left
Would be tiny flowered weeds
& aphids for the ladybugs
Her eyes show this knowledge
She was the child
I loved more than myself
That spit at the circus
Peed behind the ferris wheel
Shin kicked the Ring-master
and gave all of the clowns a
raise. Lost in the house
of mirrors, no razor,
No bottle of depressants.
Liar, only cotton candy fingers
I loved you, distempered
a mouth melter
Don't cut you
Never trust strangers
I need you
Because, they
don't follow you around like I do
I'm sorry that I came to late
to pump your guts out
I guess I'm gutless
Fertilizer for the tangle of
green on the blind side of
the house.
One day too
You,
Out there
Will sit quietly
Chain-smoking
On somebody else's
Front porch swing
dragging your feet
to slow down, but
unable to get up &
go back inside.
Author notes
MD
Written January 18th, 2004
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1 - 7 of 7
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I've read a couple of your poems and I love everything I've seen. Just wanted to let you know that you're appreciated....
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It's funny, because I always wanted one of those porch swings for my house.
The last bit was really what hit me the hardest,
about chain smoking and not being able to get back up
fantastic piece.
-m- -
wow! just..wow!.. great write... awesome job..really.. good luck and thank you so much for entering.. good luck.. Latears* Jessie
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This was breath-taking. I seriously stopped breathing for a moment. This is such a beautiful poem, yet touched by agony. Again, you've created unique imagery. I loved the whole flash-back to the circus - wonderful. My favorite part was:
"I guess I'm gutless
Fertilizer for the tangle of
green on the blind side of
the house."
-Renee -
Interesting. I don't get an image of sadness from this piece - a bit of poignancy, but overall a sense of love for the person in the swing who sounds like she's fun (or was - I get a past-tense echo here).
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Sad. And I don't know why. I've only personally been on two porch swings in my entire life...one I still swing on and one I was violently pushed from for no apparent reason. Maybe that is why this hurts so much.
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You are just a puddle of bad feelings sometimes aren't you?...I think everyone has those days though, where, chain smoking is their right and no amount of forceful or fanciful coersion is going ot make them do anything, but swallow 10 packs of cigarettes...
Nyx...
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