The Poetry Marathon

I’ve traveled the world
joshua trees in california
gingko trees in china
redwoods in oregon, black woods in germany
carved canoes from the salish nation
nordic ships crashing in the loamy sea
free water in south Dakota
red sea meets the black sea
the rocky mountains, the alps
new mountains in haze of ash and fire
the cloudy breaths of a mongolian yak on a hillside
a golden eagle hunting
whales breaching and calves frolicking
devil’s staircases, giant’s staircases
arctic tundra and desert scrub

I have never been these places
I have never seen these wonders

But I have the postcards

Oops
fell
slipped down a dry well
guess this will be quite a story to tell

Soon
see
they’ll come looking for me
help me back up and then Ill be free

woo-hoo
hear
voices are near
wait no, shit it’s just some deer

yoo-hoo
here
come get me dear
im tired and thirsty and need a beer

boo
still here
folks are coming near
its much too late for that I fear

had they come before darkness fell
I wouldn’t have to haunt this well

My ancestors would marvel at how rich I am…
Running water:hot or cold
da white folks let you take baffs? And it ain’t even Christmas!
and a place to keep food fresh.
well would you lookie here. is that ICE?
A machine that washes my dishes and my clothes.
hoity toity miss ain’t ya?
Clothes that I don’t have to sew myself.
What do you mean you can’t sew?
My own job that I get paid real money for
Cash money? Ma massa just give me a slab of bacon and some cornmeal
I have lotion for my hands that are not bleeding or calloused from picking cotton
Oh so’s you’s a house nigga?
I have over twenty pairs of shoes
Ain’t nobody need that many shoes, girl!
I am a rich woman.
You sho is!

So that’s what I’ll try to remember to tell myself when I remember I have 15 years of student loans to pay back and no one is going to kill me over it.

I would like to invite you to join us in celebration of
Two most momentous occasions: two sides of the breath.
The first inhale
The last exhale
One marks the beginning, and one the end

This fete full of marvels and milestones
Is sure to bestir such great gasps of wonder
At times
Observe
the first view of the milky way
the whale breaching
the aurora borealis
A litter of kittens beneath the stoop

Between the first breath and the last is monotony and adventure
And endless sea of breaths
Gathered full force,
a lifetime of breaths could suction out the essence of space and put it all back again
But we cannot know such power
And so we sip politely each our own lung-fulls, and empty them again, never counting, never knowing when the last one will come
The first one hurt so badly, was such a shock, and the last one will just be the last
The sonerous breath
To whisk the dandelion seeds across the lawn
Gather in you lungs the briny breath of sea
A breath that hitches in surprise, but eventually seeps back out into the ether
The roiling rising disturbance from beneath water,
The duration of said celebration cannot be determined
Until the final sleep where the breathing ends

absorbing aiming attaching
bubbling breathing
chewing chasing clicking crashing clinging
diving dancing disengaging
echoing ebbing emulating
falling flicking fornicating
grazing gagging galloping gallivanting gathering gesturing
hiding
impaling
jogging jiggling jostling
kneeling kissing kneading
lollygagging leaping loaping
mooing melting meshing munching
nudging nestling
orbiting obliterating
puckering punching
quaking quivering quavering
rolling running romping rumbling
screeching slithering swimming stalking spreading swishing shifting
tumbling teeming tip-toeing
uncoiling
vibrating
wagging whipping writhing
x-ing out
yanking yawning yodeling
zooming zesting

rumble of thunder
jolts me from my dreaming state
I hate your snoring

I belong here
by right of my own birth
by right of my very existence
so why am I worth so
little
My skin, my brown skin, my largest organ that protects me from the elements
cannot protect me from hate

I am alive and here so why don’t I deserve to breath the sweet air and walk the earth too
Like every other living being?

I want to walk the earth and live my life

How can I be less than nothing in a world where everything has a place.

We are all made of starstuff, so let me reach my starry foot out of my front door and live the journey they were meant
Instead of being absorbed in the self-doubt of my very existence.

and I’d like to do it without being shot, please.

Let us grown old together and
travel the world
Tromp across the desert
our skin grown thick as leather

I want to grow old with you
lets skip the kids
The forest we can nurture
as we grow old together

I want to grow old together
you by my side
Riding treetops in stormy weather
our hands clinging tight to the other

Growing old with me beside you
old elephants we are
Wandering off to die together
leave the herd behind

Through the wilderness we’ll wander till one or both goes senile and your’re still in a wheelchair and I’m too weak to push you, then I wander off a cliff like a mountain goat and you can’t unfold your emergency blanket quickly enough (There’s a snowstorm and you have bad arthritis in your fingers) so you slowly freeze to death and the last thing I’ll remember is you and the last thing you’ll think of is me.

Lets not die in some old folks home.

I stare
this hour silenced
pillowed breaths muffled
then, gasps of horror, a murder
a dream

These things are dear to me
Honed over the years
The lips, the pen, and books to read
These things are dear to me
From now until the earth I leave
Each trek I take
These things are dear to me
Honed over the years