a poem for times like these....

After three failed pregnancies, Kate wants to be a pregnant bride. There's a virus raging, we tell her. Give her credit.

let us speak about

this creaturehood, afraid to touch our speckled faces.

Forgetting to even tie our aprons behind our backs when we sing.

On the cadenza where mother opens the creed to Corinthians 2/

"if I grieve you, who is left to make me glad but you

whom I have grieved"/ But that's all it takes now.

A good old fashioned virus to make us mangled

captives of our own crapulous indulgences. Stuff

like washing our hands when were in a hurry,

exfoliating our tongues, scratching our backs

with the toes of our lovers; and this sermon

of scorched earth, damnation and fire, no doubt

there is still at the end of this long abyss this

expatiate wanderer like a  motherhood of native

ramblings under the March-lit sky.

Poetry must be the firmament now since it carries

out it's usual functions of muse lecturing to sprit yet

no village, no tidy natives can hold it's spy head under the watchful

river. When it goes away, it's angry looking bad even when it's

sincere. but when it returns it leaps in the arms of our fathers

picks the twigs from our unkept perms.

Things will improve, they say. You just wait till this thing is over,

they say. And with all this extra time, clear your mind. Somesay,

stroke the picture of the loved one who shot you above the knee.

Listen to a old song in hopes that that old pain

is yet fulfilled.

Reviews

[Robert Trakofler]

sometimes when I read you, I wish so dearly to hear you... say the lines. Not that I don't hear you when I read but I would enjoy the audible of your inflections:) when I read your work out loud verses the inner voice many things come to different lights as is true with much poetry but me thinks your voice would add another level to this (just the bunny's opinion) but here I am thats the only one i've got they haven't published a cliff note commentary of the movement as of yet... but then again I rarely agree with those things anywho:/ (thank you for the reminder to exfoliate my tongue by the way, always forgetting) is poetry a thing I wonder does it have mass or is it merely an action or potential sometimes I see poetry as an infer of motion circular markings in footsteps not sure if i'm following my own tracks or retracing someone else's but inevitably I will make a misstep and deviate from the discourse maybe that's where we get innovation that is of course if the misstep gleans to a new light I don't know how I ended up here but this is the line of thought flow that came into my mind in a freeflow keyboard strike response to your lines

[h d e rushin]

interesting question Bad. I hear poems in my head way before I write them down. That's what Lightnin Hopkins said of the blues or how Coltrane went into the session of "A Love Supreme" without any notes.. It is, if anything, a perpetual thing. More a happening than an occurrence I think. Thanks for your words my friend....There's a virus loose in Detroit and the world and i'm trying my best to stay safe....dana

[Robert Trakofler]

well here's to that quarantine not quarantining your mind:)

[barleygirl]

Your poem is beyond my ability to picture or feel it, but I still love the way you paint a story that other people must be feeling in a big way these days. Nothing here has changed & nobody around here is being careful at all, just life as usual in the boondocks. I am a little amazed at how difficult it seems to be for people to have their lives disrupted, but maybe we needed to be launched out of our comfort zones for some reason. So many scourges go on & on & on . . . why is this one so remarkable, I wonder? Here's hoping you & your loved ones are well (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[h d e rushin]

thank you Margie, I am well, stuck in the house, eating last weeks chili, but well. Thank you for you words my friend....My loneliness needs them more than I.....dana

[Einstein Noodle]

love the closing two lines .. brilliant says i ... the body of this one seems to wander a bit h d ... lots of apples to pick but i can't see the tree ;) pity its hard times of want that it takes to raise up a little appreciation for "have" ... we all can wash our hands .. with soap ... i think of those countries without running water in much of their land ... wow! i fear they will be blasted by this ... they aren't screaming for 40,00 ventilators ... the scream for a faucet that works ... and stand in lines for days for a doctor or "healer" ... i keep saying that i am lucky .. haven't had to change much of anything in my life ... i am in the forest and reclusive to a healthy degree with no great need to go "into town" ... i feel your "cabin fever" though :( ........ we will get through this .. its a virus ... it will pass like those blights that bit in the past ... hugs h d! (social distancing hug that is) :) .................
E.

[h d e rushin]

the doctor Einstein is no longer the healer, I've heard. if your too old, too sick, without insurance, too broken..they send you home to do your heavy breathing alone. That's the biggest change of all my friend. When we can no longer seek help, the help needed desperately to deliver before it's too late, no one is there. the world has change in the last 40 days. a world that took my lifetime to imagine..thanks brother....dana

[Einstein Noodle]

i do confess to glimpsing the thought that unseen forces are working to cull the old .. get us off SS ;}
but its a fleeting thought ... i try hard to give to Ceasar what is his ... yet never trust him ... you are not alone thinking the world is now changed for good ... how comfortable will we get back to on subways, buses, Churches, restaurants etc. ..we shall see eh!?

[Beccy]

Charlie and I, with our dog Hollie, took our usual allowed out walking exercise today, and as it has been for over a week now, the village was virtually deserted. This unseen little bug has had such an impact on our species way of life, that locked as we are in our own little bubbles, it is almost impossible to comprehend.

I keep watching TV images of deserted cities that once were thronged with people. The images depicted are almost surreal; and yet, here we are; alongside, floods, drought, plagues of locusts that are threatening the lives of millions; plus a continent that burned as if from the fires of hell.

The only upside of this virus, (doubtless short lived, is how clean the air is to breath in comparison to just a few short weeks ago; and for the first time in decades the canals of Venice are clear enough for fish to be seen.

But, will we learn the lesson? Finally accept that what we are doing to this beautiful gift of a planet, is reaping us our just deserts? In truth, whilst the bottom line is of more importance to those who's greed transcends the future of our children; I doubt it it very much.

Stay safe and well. X Beccy.

[h d e rushin]

I too saw those pictures of the clear canals of Venice and the un-smogged skyline over New York and LA. It took a virus to stop our plundering of the environment? Perhaps...But it also took a virus to make us look closer at the people and the things we love...thanks Beccy….dana

[jacob erin-cilberto]

"a good old fashioned virus to make us mangled captives of our own crapulous indulgences"
makes me wonder....did humanity bring this upon ourselves...is God just fed up...like he was when he told Noah to build his ark...?
and who will survive this? who will left to fulfill that old pain, as you put it...
I wonder how much things will improve when this is over. I wonder how much people will want to have contact when it is safe...and will there be more lovin', more huggin' and squeezing..
or will we just stay wary of each other and keep our distance....i wonder.
j.

[h d e rushin]

I got an old mother living with me Jacob. She barely remembers the depression, but then again she can barely remember anything at all. Just that everything was harder to do and have/ even on a farm where people grew and raised what they ate. I've been in the house now for 8 straight days and i'm going nuts. Nuts since every possible encounter may mean the process of my demise is under way. It is real fear when you fear your own backyard...Remember the movie "Alien" when the monster was on the ship but hiding behind the many instrument panels? That's what this is like, except this time, the monster is real....thanks brother...dana

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Yes, I remember that part of Alien...but in a sense this is like that in that it is a monster we can't see...
they finally saw the Alien and could fight it...we need to figure a way to see this monster and start being able to fight it.
j.

[John the Baptist]

Sometimes it does take a disaster to make you appreciate all the things you have come to take for granted. It is good to stroke the pictures of those we love, whether they shot us above the knee or not.

[h d e rushin]

haha...I need a good laugh John...thanks brother...dana