Some Random Tuesday

 —Poetry by Richard LeDue, Norway House,
Manitoba, Canada
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of
Joe Nolan, Stockton, CA

 

 

BURY ME IN MY RAIN BOOTS

Whisky-soaked yesterdays have dried up
finally, and the empty glass
that tried to convince me of itself
being a metaphor for my soul
has been put away in a cupboard
as quiet as any coffin
we leave to someone else
to choose for us, but the grey clouds
have more patience than the spring sun,
so they’ll wait for the right time
to remind me how I learned
to swim in puddles of my own making. 

 

 

 

DAMNING SPRING SUNLIGHT

Letting footprints in the snow melt
like someone trying hard
to forget all the Sunday mornings
and other time wasted going
in the same circles each day,
only for the inevitable blank stare
from mud (a distant cousin to Adam
looking at a half-eaten apple)
that makes me feel overworked
in this staring contest we call “god.”

 

 

 

 

43 IS A MUSICAL NUMBER

Old songs trying to help me
not feel like my youth,
a radio stained with static
in this digital age,

only for me to find my own music
in the silence of grey hair
and wrinkles in my bathroom mirror
on some random Tuesday.

 

 

 

 

I don’t have enough

passion to prove blood is red
inside a heart beating alone
like a drunk who doesn’t know
they’re fighting only themselves,
and my smile is forced without being forced,
leaving all my unspoken hellos and goodbyes
to boil in veins, blue as cartoon water,
until my words float, deader
than overcooked hot dogs
three days before pay day.

 

 

 

I like to pretend

earthworms hum hymns to a god
we used for fish bait
without realizing we were being
sacrilegious,
while our Sunday best an appetizer.

that it was enough to fill beer bottles
on those blacked-out Saturdays,
when old love songs helped us
forget how we feel too often
that god pointless.

a prepaid funeral the greatest optimism
that our own creator didn’t end
up on a hook beyond our comprehension
in a pond the same colour
as eyes glued shut.

 

 

 

STRANGERS AT A BUS STOP

Your crooked smile as straight as it can get,
failing beautifully at hiding sadness,
with the sort of dishonesty lying to itself
about being a better driver than it is,
and I start to realize my lips
more like a double decker bus
no one wants to ride,
while my most practised grin
a turn going the wrong direction
down a one-way street,
leaving all our shared pains quiet
as we are, strangers at a bus stop,
where tears are better at waiting
than the fear of being late for work.

____________________

Today’s LittleNIp:

GIVING IT UP
—Richard LeDue

It takes courage to stare at the sun,
instead of blacking out
into another night narrated
by an empty whisky bottle
the next morning.

The light burning with the darkness
of how all our failures
fuel irresponsibility like a machine
we say someone else built,
while we slept in again.

____________________

—Medusa, with thanks to Richard LeDue for today’s fine poetry from up in the snow~and to Joe Nolan for coming up with some fine photos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A reminder that
SPF Fringe presents a workshop,
Using Poetic Elements to
Write Songs for Musical Theater,
in Nevada City today, 4:30pm;
Stephen Meadows will read in
South Lake Tahoe today, 5:30pm;
and Mahogany Urban Poetry Series
features De Saint in Sacramento, 7pm.
For info about these and other
future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
 during the week.

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.

Poets’ bios appear on their first MK visit.
To find previous posts, type the name
of the poet (or poem) into the little
beige box at the top left-hand side
of this column. See also
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom
of the blue column on the right
side of this column to find
any date you want.

Miss a post?
You can find our most recent ones by
scrolling down under this daily one.
Or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column.
(Please excuse typos in older posts!
Blogspot has been through a lot of
incarnations in 20 years!)

Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
send poetry and/or photos and artwork
to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world—including
that which was previously published—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!