Back When We Knew It All

January 29, 2009 – 2:00 pm |

Poetry scares me.  It’s naked writing.  I prefer to dig in, cozy and safe, under layers of prose.  On the rare occasion that I do write a poem, I stick to the basic rhyme, a simple AABB, farce and ode, feebly mocking the terrifying genre with my poorman’s attempts at it.

I flinched when this week’s observations about balance wanted to surface as a poem, but one of my creative goals for the year, and the blog, is less self-censorship.  SO, I’m breathing deep and clicking publish.  It’s as yet untitled, but I’m thinking  New Associates at a Seminar.

They’re so Angular,
crisp, pressed, poised for
the Battle.

Before the softening
of body
and principle.

Silently they decree
-Oh I’ll never …-
by shifts and sighs,
judgmental sideways stares
as the offender bundles
and quickly scoots
the shrieking distraction out the door.

Never say Never,
I smirk.
We walked in your pointy shoes once.
Before.

Before buttons busted
over belly and bosom
Before purple crept under the eyes
and doubt into the
paradigm.

When feet didn’t need
to make such good time
and feminism simply meant
they should let
us
take the depositions.