Can't Live Inside

 All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. -Havelock Ellis

...That wasn’t the truth though. Winter

comes and negates all its covers. It doesn’t matter where I stand.

The balcony is a floor without walls.

The yew is a hurt that shadows.

The instance lives beneath us. Not just us, everybody.

The shadow hurts us. I make sounds like

the truth. Fate and theft are involved.

I think I told you this before. The floor is a wall that obscures.

The yew is quilt without color. Shadow is a fate you involved.

The yew on a balcony negates. I told you this before.

I was left undone. It’s what I meant. Underneath everyone.

-Carmen Gimenez Smith

 Memories Of The City
I was unaware of my own disappearing,
how I’d come to float onto the cement,
Seasick in this swaying city,
forgetful of my own feet.

the best questions get hummed away
fizzling into forgetfulness
the brains way of hiding fear

I was there, then I was gone
Some vague notion of home ahead of me
Following phantoms into the light
Dismayed by my senses

I’m too young to go anywhere
Other than back
Inhaling the moments I’ve been missing

New Year Pro

After the news, the forecaster crowed

With excitement about his bad tidings:

Eighteen inches of snow! Take cover!

A little shiver ran through the community.

Children abandoned their homework.

Who cared about the hypotenuse now?

The snowplow driver laid out his long johns.

The old couple, who’d barked at each other

At supper, smiled shyly, turned off the TV,

And climbed the stairs to their queen-size bed

Heaped high with blankets and quilts.

And the aging husky they failed to hear

Scratch the back door, turned around twice

In the yard, settled herself in the snow,

And covered her nose with her tail.

Barton Sutter

The best thing that never happened, you

Could pass through walls, breath fire

And perform other magicks I’m sure

That I never had a chance to see,

concocting potions and powders

and spells you’d spit into the night

A frightening feminine of fables

Just as quick to disappear as arrive