Script for Earthly Ties
Part One: Gravity
What binds me to this earth
are the hands of my children,
as I hold my mother
holding her mother
back to the mother
who begat us all.
This is gravity.
This is why we call the earth Mother,
why all rising is a miracle.
Part Two: Grief Becomes Me
What I Know
Because I awaken
at 6:19
to pain
as if my heart
were a wishbone
pulled apart,
I am not surprised
when they climb
the stairs
to tell me
you are dead.
Now I understand
what fear is:
waiting
for the messenger
to tell me what
I know.
Word
I refuse to say
pass away
or even die
words both passive,
natural, insist
instead on killed,
word cruel enough
to pluck you
from this life.
The Dead
One night you come back fat.
When I ask why, you say,
the dead don’t exercise,
but we do eat dinner.
From In Quintana Roo
I dreamt last night
my friend left her green parrot
in my care,
but I failed to feed or give it water
and when she came
to claim it, the bird lay dead
next to a vase of browning lilies.
Suddenly, you appear
in the dark sea
of my dream, saying
“I don’t remember when
we last made love.”
Be patient, Dear Heart,
I’m learning how
to love you dead.
Part Three: My Heaven
for Lenore Brown
In my heaven I wear
white cashmere Armani,
eat chocolate truffles
without dribbling my breasts.
The more Camels I smoke
the better my breath smells
and Cosmos and cabernet-
all the fruit that I wish.
Every day here is Great Hair Day
and I always look ravishing,
rested and thin. There are no duties
in heaven, just one long salon
with talk unfailingly brilliant.
Infinitely witty and quick
come to mind. No sputtering
world for tiresome distraction. Up here,
down there doesn’t come up for discussion.
Life in heaven: endless insouciance,
all bon mots and bonbons.
Did I mention how superb is my French?
And what of my poems?
Now, Major Movies.
Every one sold for Big Bucks
and starring in all The Roles of a Lifetime
is my favorite actress,
the incomparable, inimitable,
lovable Me. |
