When you’re lucky enough to have lived a long life, as I have done, your role is to remind us how far we have come. –Gloria Steinem A Long Way, Baby women only in dressesmen in work overallsdinner on and at the table when he gets homemeat, potato, vegetabletv trays and foil banquet dinnersmetal lunch…
Category: dverse
Q255 rock me baby
rock me baby we beach ourselvesblue-skiedwarm-channeledbetween wee lakeand freshwater sea we resist currentsto sift sugar sandour fingers find lithssmooth, fragged,sliced through eureka xenolithrare nuggetthat rivals fossilupheaves in spacewhere it chooses to offer itself to us Stone-sifting is a cherished family pasttime. Wherever there is sand and lakes in Michigan, there are rocks to find. When…
Warts and All: An Ekphrastic Pondering
Warts and All: An Ekphrastic Pondering Sagacious-eyed, panoptic lumpy godsendPrimordial, a polar sprout, a forked tooth.A state unplaced, outside of time, alleged, A boulder rests, that’s bold yet bland. A rough sleuthIngests all dust ingredients to swirl cake,Its vortex cached with ev’ry seasoned spice sooth. In petroglyphic fashion, fetish-carved castBeyond a culture’s judgment, baking new…
dVerse OLN 414 — Sleeplessness
Sleeplessness pink dawn’s new light creeps darkness’ hillblushing tells me awake; I’m stillnot asleep my thoughts meander consciousnessdeprives xana-du of mistressso sleepy! body leaden as if torturedracing rumination forwardsleep-zombied can I neutralize this schism?moderate this hers ‘n hism?beauty sleep? make a pact, a blessed covenantwalk as lovers, not sprint and gruntsound asleep… My second try…
dVerse — MTB / Form — Flying High
Flying High hog rise to ridge; eyes cast, I spot,scene-squeezed, a vision: peepers pop,I’m sky-high dressed in sixties mini-dress (props)fishnet stockings, pink, with high-tops,her thigh-highs! long-haired mod-podge fantasy, herthumb out. my thighs scaffold outcrop,high-tail it. chopper-roared, muffler-growled spin-outrubber gripping melting blacktop;I’m high-risk rumbly offered boarding, hog stops.burned, relieved, she climbs atopwe high-fly Laura is Tuesday’s…
dVerse Prosery — Until We Meet Again, Dear Friend
. . . and the iridescent image swimsthrough a mirror that flows.”Stanley Kunitz (The Atlantic, 1970)from “King of the River” Until We Meet Again, Dear Friend Her cries are barely audible. She is tired. It’s been days since she’s been able to drink. She sits and looks at the water, so thirsty. She looks away, looking…
dVerse 413 — The Mechanics of Drudgery
The Mechanics of DrudgeryAnother annual review rolls around.Another evaluator passing through.She thought this one was decent,But he’s new, after all. He needsTo prove his own worth to admin. Wearing Little Marco Florsheims,He tells her she jokes too much,That she makes her colleagues Smile. (We know where laughter leads.)A light heart may cause outburstsOf hope. We…
