songanddancegirl

I AM WOMAN

I  AM         WOMAN

She looks bandaged    barely held together

by strips of color    Coming apart at the seams

I have felt this way  the odd day   Even when I

was supposed to be   pulled together  –

Especially then

Or perhaps   beneath the taught veneer  she is

always there   wrestling with the trappings of :

bra   &   dress

heel  &  hat

The wild-woman  anti-heroine   Once corseted &

coiffed   Now busting out    Unholy Mad Madonna

a hair’s breath away   from devouring her young

Or you –

So please do   give this woman   a wide berth   on most days

__

Woman 1   1950-52   Willem De Kooning  AGO   2011

DAY OF THE DEAD

DAY  OF  THE  DEAD

My friend David gave me

a little box

with a skeletal

bride & groom inside

I’m trying not to read

too much

into it

The  sparkly blue backdrop

looks so inviting

They are smiling their

skeletal smiles

So what’s the problem?

He was at my wedding

19yrs.ago –

Is he trying to say:

a)    don’t flog a dead horse

b)    you are a match made in heaven

c)     your marriage is a 3 ring circus and you’ll never get out alive

Or  MERRY CHRISTMAS ?

__

December 2009

OF LIFE & LIMB

OF     LIFE & LIMB

I  read somewhere  that losing

someone you love   is akin to

loss of  limb   I suppose that my

child clients   miss their parents

like a long lost   phantom limb

Are the recent losses I have suffered

akin?   44 yr old cousin with a 6 yr old

son  died of lung cancer in 2001   Sarah

of the big brown eyes   Said our good –

byes  in the ICU   Asked for a Rabbi but

they’d never seen a  Jew

This year my bulldog nephew & his slim

human mother   And as my heart’s in tatters

I shall  dare to compare    For as my analyst

Beverly said:  “If it hurts  It hurts”

A statement   both  deep & rare

__

March 2012

THAT BULLDOG

THAT  BULLDOG  IS  THE  SPITTING  IMAGE      OF  MY  BROTHER

I wasn’t supposed to take my baby

nephew  home     I just couldn’t resist

24 lbs. of  sweet plump perfection

squeaking like a mouse

On the way   he morphed into my

other nephew   all 65 lbs. of sweet

plump    bulldog perfection

I wondered where he’d nap & what I’d

feed him for lunch    This baby boy bulldog

filled a hole so deep  I’d probably take him

on a roadtrip   to the Badlands of Alberta

Where bully-bones  &   barren old aunt-bones    will be unearthed     Someday

__

February 2012

POYDRAS

POYDRAS  THE  BIONIC  BULLDOG

They will say    Oh he was just a dog

Of the fat little bully  I gave my

heart to    Named for a Southern poet

& carted here from Poland (poor bastard)

No one has been this happy to see me

except perhaps my 3^rd husband  on a

good day   But people generally make me

want to bolt or bite    So I will mourn the

passing of said bulldog like a  4^th  brother

And when   his hips go   I hope they won’t   make him   bionic

—

Summer 2011

I WISH I HAD THE CONFIDENCE

O   I  WISH I HAD THE CONFIDENCE   OF PROFESSOR JANICE STEIN*

The Fall rains are coming   heavy with

the scent of snow    As usual the season’s

change  makes me feel alien in my  own

skin    The sap is reversing  my therapist

said   some 20 years ago

When I still  believed in  Peace &  Love  &  Good Government   

Now there’s something called the

Arab Spring    And the King of Dubai

just gave women the vote    Though they

still get  10 lashes    for driving a car

It remains difficult to measure the quality

of mercy   and the   quantity of progress

*Munk School Of International Relations

__

Fall 2011

NERVOUS SHOEWATHCHER

NERVOUS   SHOE WATCHER

She eyes   my shoes  with anxious tension

generally reserved for birds of prey    She is

a  so hip it hurts psychotherapist   living the

dream   in West Queen West    I cannot help

but feel the prick of envy  mixed with evil eye

Her hello belies   the palpable fear    that I

am a hoarder  of  shoes & frocks    For this

she will forever be left   in her  deshabille

&  sand coloured crocs

__

September 7, 2012

HERE COMES THE SUN

HERE   COMES      THE SUN

I love  Frank O Hara   crushed by

a Jeep  at 40    His poems lyrical &

deep    I love Frank’s face   on the

pastel cover of his  Selected Poems

He looks like a beautiful boy wonder

with freckles & a ponderous stare

Mouth ½  open   eyelashes long

O Frank   a death so violent   for a man

of such  charm

__

*Inspired by:  A TRUE ACCOUNT OF TALKING TO THE SUN AT FIRE ISLAND      1958  FRANK O HARA

Winter 2012

A CLOWN WITH BLUE HAIR

A  CLOWN  WITH  BLUE  HAIR

Driving along Queen St. today       under cover of grey

fall splendor squandered

Marching drones & clones

in large numbers   wander

A day is a day is a                 Hark!

A young clown with blue hair

is smiling at the troops      He is unspeakably beautiful

His smile urgent & fleeting

casting pearls before the swine

He’s mine all mine     I want to take him home     to meet my mother

And marry him       if he’ll have me

—

Fall 2011

YOU HAVE GENIUS

YOU  HAVE  GENIUS     WRITTEN  ALL OVER  YOUR  FACE

Watching kids play tag in the glaring sun

I catch a glimpse of their   future selves

There a secretary   and you   a wiry bicycle

courier   or   street urchin?  So androgynous

in your Tilly hat  you may be  nymph or  gnome

She calls you Simon   and you laugh with wild

abandon    Little yellow clogs   barely hold your

pigeon toes     Simon     I think I love you

—

Summer 2011