This blog is devoted to a select group of poets. We're starting with poets from the Ann Arbor area, but, hey, if you're from Detroit, Grand Rapids, Saginaw or the Upper Peninsula, then that is okay, too. We've even been so generous to accept poets from other parts of the USA and the entire country of Canada!
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Magically
ReplyDeleteThe world of the poet
Or any writer
Is not magically poetic
Or lyrical
Do you think I'm magically poetic?
I'm not
Today I feel as dull as a ceiling fan
Magically poetic, I'm ashamed to say
Reminds me of that charmed breakfast cereal
It was so magically delicious
Jesus, magically delicious
A cereal!
Pastel sponges of spun sugar and mystery wheat
Yet, magically delicious
So, what happens when you get the terminal illness?
The one where you have six months to live?
Where if you're lucky you have a few days or weeks
Or a good month or two
Before the pain sets in and your brain drops an octave
Where new pharmaceuticals make you heavy-lidded
Where you don't breath right and
Where the lack of oxygen makes you drunk
You feel as if the layers of your life are as a dream
Except it's a very bad dream--a miserable dream
The kind of dream where you awake
Ad the daylight is much worse
You decide with those days or weeks
To spend your life savings
Shit, what does it matter now?
Your kids are grown, smarter and richer
Than you will ever be
Especially now that your wealth building years have been drastically shortened
Even the most brilliant financial planner would be better letting it all ride on red
You study the travel magazines spread across ythe doctor's waiting room
Wonder if he's providing a back-door service for his bad news cases
An article on the cuisine of the Caribbean makes your dried out
Overly medicated glands salivate
Is he sending a message?
You've only got so much time now
Don't spend another winter (which you don't have anyway)
Shoveling the snow
Freezing
Telling yourself the cold would be easier if you took up a winter sport
Dialing down the heat to save on utility bills
The cuisine of the Caribbean
Green Banana Curry
Prawn Kabobs & Mango Salsa
Crab & Papaya Salad
Ackee & Saltfish
Lime & Cocnut Merigue Pie
You've never tasted
Not one of these dishes
You look closer at the recipes
The photos so crisp and detailed
It is not fair
But then you know what magically delicious means
It is magical this food
It is not an advertising campaign
Without telling your wife any of this
You book a single room
In the best hotel
In a poor town in Jamaica
The one that the magazine describes
This part will be good
This part may put dying in perspective
It will be
No matter what else it will be
Magically delicious
Catherine Powers
December 2, 2013
Copyright 2013
ReplyDeleteIN AN ELEVATOR IN CHICAGO
I don't have what it takes to be a fan.
At least I don't think so.
I can't lose my head and spend my life savings on band swag.
I can't chase the tour bus around the country.
I can't sit in the stadium,
rain or shine,
icy weather or heat wave,
win or lose
cheering my team forward.
I don't care who wins
I just want to see a good game.
My heroes
Bruce and Huston and Hali and Durwood and Pete
stepped down from their pedastals a long time ago
willingly,
graciously,
humbly
and freed my guarded passions
Maybe they're too free for me to be a fan
I was at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1993
and asked Arlo if he wanted to jam sometime.
-Mike Fedel
December, 2013