“Don’t worry, Lina”, Jesus says to me.
-Meg Sefton
Sonse, Ospedale delle Bambole, Rome, flickr
I am not supposed to be touching little Jesus inside my purse while I am at church. But Uncle Danny gave me Jesus. Now he’s dead. I say sorry Jesus in case I touch his no no square. Mama gives me a look. Don’t worry, Lina, Jesus says to me.
we’re feeling closer than ever before
greeting hellos in distant passing
an acknowledgement of an external fight
we’re fighting inside
there’s no blood on the streets
and the lights illuminate every window
we’re living a history book, real time
we talk so much about nothing at all
we ask about each other’s day
and mean it
Some Angels from a silent night
had gathered on a day,
for so it was their Lord’s delight
to watch them all at play.
On silky chains
and silver chairs,
they circled round and round,
and sang a song of heavenly stairs,
and joyous was the sound.
“Italy” it said to me
as I pushed the earplug in.
And dreamed about covidity,
and things that might have been.
Coffee mornings, browning air
embolden fauna fair.
Investigators in the yard
come closer, on a dare.
Gimme those geometries,
those triangles and squares,
Dimensional anomalies,
to tesseract my cares.
Compasses and sliding rules;
protractors are the rage.
And, adding and dividing tools
put answers on the page.
So, at my desk, I’m bent upon
the solving of equations.
This genius that borders on
the softest of invasions.
I taped my mouth shut
for ten years,
‘til a professional told me
it was wrong,
I should wean.
There were pills, too,
that hypnotized
the disobedient sleep,
then upsold themselves.
On my knees,
I considered cuts,
and reached for a siren’s call.
But here
now
today
biding time.
If you would,
talk some sense into me.
Or,
just talk some sense.
I am in short supply,
you see.
I have broad and muscled shoulders
from clenching the etched-in tension.
A hard head with a coconut brain
to unveil the dumb mornings.
Those that move in this captivity
are bound to me,
but we are foreign
to one another.
Aremyfeetofftheground 