Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Counting Down

Counting Down

Harold Meyerbeer is a
meek man with a
desire to do something a
man has not ever done

He does not yet know what it
is, but he knows that if he
sits in this bar long
enough it will come to him

The clock is ticking oh it’s ticking

Sharon Gufaltefel holds off the
world by earning degrees.
The less she knows, the more she
needs proof that she knows more

She walks her den, lined with
diplomas, and strokes the
letters that follow her name like the
heads of beloved pets

The clock is ticking oh it’s

Karen Gotterdammerung vows that,
once the last of her seven
children strikes out for college,
she will do what she really wants to do

When the youngest hits
high school, she retreats to
the bathroom and feels an
emptiness ghosting her spine.
She takes her birth control pills and
tosses them into the toilet

The clock is ticking oh

Bill Keiderweltz spends forty
years preparing other people’s
taxes, composing mental movies of
their lives from the hints contained in
their receipts

Today he applies an apostrophe of
umber to the leftmost margin of an
oceanscape and stands back

Astounded that his hands could
have done such a thing

Puts on Gershwin and cries
 
 
 
Notes: The wish to create something is oft-stated but rarely fulfilled. I have been gifted with the ability to take that first step, to not care about looking foolish, and I wish I could share it with others, but it's something that has to begin inside.

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