Lifting Weights Devouring time, blunt thou the lion’s paws. William Shakespeare I am an Oklahoman.I became a weightlifter early a mover of all things heavy.With my peoplecarrying the ballast became second nature. From my youth, it seemed my legs and back were built to lift a load and bear a burden. I grew strong like
Scuffed Sometimes my soul feels as worn and scuffed as my old boots.There are daysI feel every scar cut into the leather every broken stitch in the quarters and crown,and the uneven wear of the cowboy heels has changed my gaitwith an inward bent on each one. I no longer step from the stirrup in
Arkansas Diamond, 1949 for Mother fingers of September sun gently tug / morning moon from its husk / high above Arkansas’s emerald fields / rooster gives voice / to Paragould dawn / in Gwen’s eighteenth year / she buttons chambray dress / dons headscarf over blonde tresses / daybreak pinkens cheeks / like the agates
remember, goddess (i’m your venus) after The Uncertainty of the Poet, by Giorgio de Chirico (Italy) 1913 and Bananarama’s “Venus,” 1986 remember, goddess, you once shed the sea’s frilly blue rhinestone nightie, emerged from dreamy ocean a bombshell the subject of whistle and worshipful gaze across magazine pages. now you feel unrecognizable but be not
Day of the Dead (chuparosa) after Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird by Frida Kahlo (MX) 1940 A Gustavo Martinez folk art painting captures me: a pair of hummingbirds hover over fervent petal clusters on a Mexican Flame Vine. I dine on plump Spanish Manzanilla olives and warm Pan de Muerto, savor orange, anise, and
once for my children i held you in just one hand running changeup hidden behind my baseball glove your quiet ways loud as high summer sun i spread a gingham blanket those days & watched your sun burn cross the sky inside me is a stone cathedral carved by your chirping chisel down its deep
what i learned last week flies might not be deep thinkers but they are quick decision makers all the doors stick but the one that will not stay shut press your elbow into it to close it every year people fly miles to Boston to run 26.2 more Nietzsche was an avid walker & an
blind to a broadwing hawk i squint to see just the drag of his dark shadow roll over lincoln green leaves an oak has heaped & holds atop her head i mean just look at all this hawk & oak butter sun silver cloud look at all this waiting like an unopened soda can quiet
The Case Against The Mother The night before court she called the plaintiff a chauvinist pig. Her son was puzzled, though he’d heard her use the phrase on men before. Five months earlier at the Bagel Den she’d said it juicier — the man was a pig, his showroom a sham, the furniture cheap knockoffs
Visitor My mother was arrested near her seventieth birthday, she scraped a parked car, left no note, her gym bag swinging into yoga class. When the cops entered mid–downward dog, she erupted— a torrent of grievance, blocks flying. But kicking? That was new. One night in jail for resisting arrest, I passed the detector, wore
