NaPoMo2011-8-14
8 Am I Up Yet?
It’s too early for this,
the furious sounds of hunger
and pure agony dueling
for my belly
as the sun beams obnoxious,
rabble-rouser,
then kicks my back
once I’ve rolled away
from its insulting glare.
Haunting shouldn’t happen
after night.
9 “You’re an adult. You have a life.”*
Sometimes a girl-woman needs a reminder.
Maybe while eating microwaved-for-55-seconds meatballs
for breakfast…off toothpicks, like Cher’s kids in that movie.
DYS shoud’ve showed up long before Bob Hoskins.
No Bobby to cook me Easter ham, so after teaching
a night course, what will I eat for dinner at 11pm?
I’m a big girl now. Defrosted block of broccoli
with grated cheese? Wash it down with Sam Adams?
*Poster on the T** for Cambridge College
**Footnote to footnote: The Tis the public transportation system in Boston, MA
10 I Get My Best Moves from Rockers
With each bus lunge, I nearly lap a stranger,
words–racing around the solitary track
in my brain that makes room once per year
for relay–knocking me off balance, almost
onto my cowboy booties. This passenger
doesn’t look too upset. Latino dude,
maybe 30, almost getting a free lapdance
from this black velvet stretch of sistah.
Nigerian beads tap together, gypsy blouse
wafts a puff of grapefruit in his face.
He stares at the hipped belt that proclaims
Love in sweetheart pink, black-lined letters.
I’m a rock poet, baby, feel free to watch me
disembark from the ordinary then walk away.
11 Published in MoJo! Issue 9
12 Soft Apprehension
I feel a soft apprehension in the dark,
a tiny fear at best gripping my chest.
Well, really, it’s the memory of fear.
Then I hear the hollow yet comforting
roar beside me and slide one knee
up and across the hair-covered beast.
He wakes as my hands press his wrists
to the bedpost, wrapping one with his tie,
the other with my bra. He growls,
“Uh-oh. Looks like you got me.”
13 What Was I Thinking?
If this isn’t a wish, it ought to be:
You, annoying as ever yet suddenly
too unusual to pass up. Me, unusual
as ever, however annoying that is.
Then, there’s the drone of everyone
else. But we don’t notice them enough
to be unsettled by their nice-nice
ways. Did we ever really care
whether or not they’d just go or why
they’re here at all? Well, don’t ask me.
I just produce fleeting thoughts, never claim
they are, or might grow up to be, true.
[Prompt: Write for 5 mts. only about something speedy.]
14 Branded for Life
Our mother thought it was dumb to toss perfectly good salt over one’s shoulder.
Morton’s belonged on the shelf next to Durkees’ black pepper and the Lawry’s
that made fried egg sandwiches even before Sam and I splatted ketchup on them.
I sprinkle white grains on pre-molded chicken burgers, then add curry powder
and garlic, wrap them in Saran for tomorrow. And I text Sam, who gets up early
to cook his three sons pancakes before school. I tell him I went into the downpour
to get Fritos to go with my Spaghetti-O’s, just like when we were kids. Why does
rain make me feel 6? I ask. Sam texts back Cuz it makes me feel 5.
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