In the First Place

meditation on the theme of "blame" for July poetry club activity with Casa los Altos

Mine are hands that have learned

to do so much in this one- half lifetime

yet I know that if you kissed each

finger-tip, they could learn to achieve

that much more. For this insight

I blame you.

 

For too long, they have all tried

to serve me steaming hot fried guilt

on their china platters, and I found it

in me to send the plate back to Hell’s

kitchen and tell them, this time, “No,

thank-you, this is not actually what

I ordered." For this boundary,

I blame you.

 

I meditate and recall now the joy

of a youth spent filling notebooks

with detailed images of the wild things

living in the woods behind some little

house in Pennsylvania, when Time

itself was a treasured companion of

each day’s start and middle and close-

not its jailor. I blame you for invoking

that memory, and making me yearn

again for that afternoon slant of light

on upturned face and exposed breasts,

for bare feet in sweetgrass.

 

Because food somehow tastes better

when I prepare it for you, I blame you.

Also because each shade of blue I see

is just that much more blue than it was

yesterday and then for the wondering,

what happens when a string of tomorrows

starts conspiring to hold the human heart

as collateral for every chance you never

took with it. If I ever overcome my fear

of free-falling, I know I will have you

to blame for pushing me off a cliff in

the first place.

 

 

Reviews

[Beccy]

A beautifully written poem about what love really is. Real love is more than simply a Mills and Boon novel, or an infatuation that never looks beneath the surface, it is so much more than that; and you have captured it perfectly here. The whole poem is quite lovely, the third stanza utterly transfixing.

Los lonely boys,'blame it on love,' sprang to mind as I read your words.

Beccy.

[charlie]

Liking this a whole lot...
It reads smooth, and weighted, and beautifully warm; and it does it without seeming to try.
Effortless poetry. Blame the blessings on love: nice theme.