Friday’s Poetry Party:
Blank verse from White Ladies
Contemporaries of Jones, Miss Grace Jones
Did I ask you for your love?
Did I ask you for your dedication?
I don’t want, I don’t want your love!
I don’t want, I don’t want your affection!
But I’ve got to have the car–
I need it for the weekend.
I’ve got to have the stereo–
A couple of deletions.
I’ve got to have the freezer–
Put some fun back in my eating.
I’ve got to have it all until I’m complete!
* * * * *
Sun’s coming up, like a big bald head. Poking up over the grocery store.
It’s Sharkey’s day.
It’s Sharkey’s day today.
Sharkey wakes up and Sharkey says: “There was this man…. And there was this road…. And if only I could remember these dreams, I know they’re trying to tell me…something.”
* * * * *
Oh yeah, I’m back there in Pilgrim times, over in Salem, Massachusetts or New England somewhere. And I was walking by a town square. They were having some kind of public execution. I see they’ve got some chick tied up to a stake, like Joan of Arc or somethin’.
And as I get closer, I notice it’s my mother.
Except she looks just like Ethel Merman.
And they’ve got this big wooden vice attached to her head, and they’re twistin’ the knobs, tighter and tighter and tighter around her head. And as they’re twisting away, and as they’re twisting away, Ethel, my mom, looks around and sees me–Ann, her daughter–staring at her from the crowd.
And with tears in her eyes–tears in her eyes–she tells me she loves me.
Except she sings it:
“I love you!”
“I love you!”
And on the third “I love you!”, her head pops like an overripe pumpkin on Halloween night.
“Why?” I sob! “Why? Why?” I sob! “Why? Why? Why? Why?”
Just because she was a ballsy lady?
Just because she was a belter?
Just because she lived with cats and worked with herbs?
Why, before you know it the FDA is gonna destroy the entire holistic community!
* * * * *
Hesperiidae, Papilionidae, Hyblaeoidae, Epiplemidae, Notodontidae, Nemeobiidae, Eupterotidae, Callidulidae.
Dioptidae, Lymantriidae, Noctuidae, Endromidae, Oxytenidae, Lycaenidae, Argyresthiidae, Ctenuchidae….
Nepticulidae, Hieroxestidae, Symmocidae, Blastobasidae, Heliozelidae, Limacodidae, Agonoxenidae, Compsoctenidae.
Neopseustidae, Incurvariidae, Oecophoridae, Stenomidae, Thyrididae, Heliodinidae, Glyphipterigidae, Dudgeoneidae.
* * * * *
Let’s see, uh…. It was on an island. And there was this snake. And the snake had legs. And he could walk all around the island. Yes, that’s true: a snake with legs. And the man and the woman were on the island too. And they were not very smart, but they were happy as…clams. Yes.
Let’s see, uh…. Then one evening the snake was walking about in the garden, and he was talking to himself, and he saw the woman, and they started to talk. And they became friends.
Very good friends.
And the woman liked the snake very much. Because when he talked, he make little noises with his tongue, and his long tongue was lightly licking about his lips. Like there was a little fire inside his mouth. And the flame would come dancing out of his mouth. And the woman liked this…very much.
And after that, she was bored with the man. Because no matter what happened, he was always as happy as a…clam.
What did the snake say? Yes! What was he saying?
Okay. I will tell you.
The snake told her things about the world. He told her about the time there was a big typhoon on the island and all the sharks came out of the water. Yes, they came out of the water and they walked right into your house with their big white teeth. And the woman heard these things. And she was in love. And the man came out and said: “We have to go now!” And the woman did not want to go. Because she was a hothead. Because she was a woman in love.
Anyway, we got into their boat and left the island. But they never stayed anywhere very long. Because the woman was restless. She was a hothead. She was a woman in love.
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