Domesticated creatures

A gender-bender demon Cinderella in a Japanese manga
cleans and hurts and begs his master for more work,
but the constant servitude is a cry to belong: to become indispensable
to become a thing needed and hope that a thing needed
is also a thing wanted.

For a Prince to domesticate a Fox, a creature that belongs only to itself
is to turn it into something that depends on you and hopes
that you need it forever and it is forever a thing wanted


And who will keep the fox? Who will keep the demon?
The Prince and the master
Entangled forever with their creatures:
unaffected by distance or space
You are entangled with me like these tamed things and
my heart
is no longer entirely
my own.

Exhaustion

Silken cotton gray falls over my eyes
as I walk, lead footed (more like a trudge),
knowing I've got to keep on, there's nothing for it,
black endless cups of hot coffee push nothing back
because it's soaked through and through

A night's rest? Yes, please.
I want the stars to dance across my eyelids,
geometric rainbows lulling me into deep sleep
that I'll slip out of only when I'm ready to surface.

Animated Horrific Leaves

I remixed a version of the Horrific Leaves Poem using the Mozilla Thimble Engine.

Note: It only seems to work in the FireFox browser.

You can see the remix here: https://megalibrarygirl.makes.org/thimble/LTExODkyODE1MzY=/mozfest-poetry-180-animate

I identify with my heroes

I identify with Oscar Wilde
not because of his wit or his style
which I do not have

I identify
because I feel his journey
of discovery

I know how it is to reject
the self that
you see reflected 

I identify with his attempts
in looking to cure to hide
pretending he wasn't as he was

and how he accepted the
self before him and embraced it
completely and utterly

with abandon that
destroyed
everything around him

Oscar's bravery now another note
in a biography
with a torn cover on a shelf

I identify with Nicola Tesla
not because of his genius

I am not an engineer or a scientist

I identify
because I have believed in things
that are larger than myself

I believe in the
goodness that is inside of
people everywhere

I too, would sell
my patents, rush onward
hope others see

the seeds of hope inside of me
as I build a tower on a mountain
to harness megawatts of energy

Nicola remembered,
eventually, as an old man
who fed the pigeons in the park

Eclipsed by Edison
forgotten by those who
plug into his genius daily

I identify with Ludwig van Beethoven
not because of music
(my ear is tin)

I identify
with his constant determination
against everything that defied him

an ugly, short man
with a quick temper
difficult to please

a terrible stand-in parent
a presumed misanthrope
who loved macaroni and Goethe’s poetry

who imagined strange life
on other planets and symphonies
in birdsong

I identify with his hope
with his defiance against
lords and encroaching silence

that even in the end,
he raised his fist,
undefeated.

I hold them close
gather them in
whisper that I will remember

the way they fell
the way they didn't fall
the ways they were human.

Song Lyrics

Inspired by FeministTaylorSwift on Twitter, a better set of lyrics for part of California Gurls sung by Katy Perry:

California Girls are unforgettable /
Sharp fresh wit /
We got it non stop.

That's all I got, folks. :)

Horrific Leaves

Clear clean water with slithery stealthy
upsetting - should - not - be - here
things
that slide over bare skin
are splashed against faces
in accident
causing shrieks
tightening grip of small fingers on my hand
splashes
of water exploding into white fountains of sunlight
that seem at odds with the
random unknown
horrific leaves in the pool.

Hummingbird Toaster

The black-orange
hummingbird toaster
flies in the heat.
I can hear it click
as it travels and pops,
smelling of
crispy buzzing.

(from a writing workshop exercise--it made my kids laugh) :)