I'm no Kate Chopin, but I'm awakening
To the flashes of light that flicker through the misty gray
Clouds I've grown to know and name.
I'd rather have a witch curse me to lie down
And sleep longer than moonlight allows,
But I can't risk becoming someone who can't walk
Where the dawn and shadows of life take me.
I wanted to observe life as she did,
With as much raw reality and gravitas
Even if I was born a century too late,
And lived far from the dark boiling marshes
Of the half-open blossom that was Louisiana.
I wanted to be the voice you remembered
Among the night's hissing embers.
Jealousy will dissolve that girl into flames
That she ignited, and fanned again
Is she eccentric enough to be a pioneer
Of what women write and hold dear?
Can I capture the reality of female heartbeats
In bright, whispering words the world
Has always seeked?
Did I want to write the jagged edges of painful moments,
And the smooth of those we keep
Under shivering eyelids?
Or did I want her legacy,
The endless waves of praise and fame,
The smiling memory of my name,
More than I wanted to write
Myself into self-doubt, heart-hurting sleep —
The joy that kills?
YOU ARE READING
Animal Emotion
KöltészetThese are my poems about animals, with some about the human animal. Some of these have been published in local journals. Previously published poems: "Close-Up With a Giraffe" "The Blue Heron" "The Baby Bunny" "Tired Hearts" ...
