songanddancegirl

SAFE

SAFE IN THE DARK   IT USED TO REST

in texas last week at twin peaks restaurant   biker

gangs had a shooting spree  nine dead   170 injured

bodies scattered everywhere

noon  busy waco interstate  truck stop draws a huge

lunchtime crowd   it’s not known what triggered the

violence   Sgt. W. Patrick Swinton   waco police

maybe there was no trigger Pat   maybe the wild wild west

still exists in the hinterland   why in washington a family

was held captive by a gun toting stranger   tortured for 8 hrs.

then he ordered a pizza   DNA gave him away   mayhem slouches

in gullies  near interstates  +arrives in the capitol on a clear spring

day   even the pundits don’t know what to say

so they pull at their moustaches   and avert their gaze   in a friendly

gesture Barack tweeted from the oval office!   he received countless

answers  many with death threats  one depicted him hanging from a tree

can we still consider america home of the free?

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What’s called a normal life?  

(Rosemary Waldrop  Love+Other pronouns)

Spring 2015

RAINBOWS

IN RAINBOWS

tiny grey-haired lady on the sidewalk

many officers + firemen in shorts pace

ragtag bag splayed  there is an oxygen

mask placed haphazardly on her face

she is well into her 80’s

as a child she believed in  rainbows +

paul bunyan   so how did she end up here?

shouting: hard hat  hard boots  what else you

got that’s hard?  once married   in leafy suburb

husband left her with 3 kids  for best friend +had

4 more

worked at a bakery   married a card shark named

Harry  a niceguy  who wore white undershirts   +

brylcreem   it’s about to pour  1st responders packing

up   Spring exploding everywhere   lilac laden trees in

hipster-ridden park give off a bovine scent  mixed now

with earth  +regret  +loathing

Her children stopped looking in 2002   will you take her

home with you?

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Spring 2015