photo by Katy Brown, Davis
MOVING DAY
—Taylor Graham, Somerset
We sorted through and left it without boxes—
forty-five years of invoices and bills,
three goldfish grown too big for their bowl.
We only took the flammables, a charcoal nude,
Stravinsky, Baudelaire, our own rough rhymes
which, in drought conditions, might spark.
What will the movers and the shakers make
of all these odds and ends of days? The soul
is long flown my mother’s cape of foxes.
A drawer-full of your dead father’s pills
we leave, expired like the rent on dark,
cold storage. For our acquisitive times,
no forwarding address. We’re in no mood
for this stuff we leave. What must we take?
_______________________
Thanks for the poem, TG—an unrhymed sonnet, by my reckoning.
You may've heard; the Snake is moving house, as the British say—or I guess moving nest, in this case. So the Kitchen will be cold; no cookin' from now through, well, probably Christmas, as we disconnect and reconnect and snowshoe up the hill and unbox and unbox and unbox... My biggest regret is that I didn't get the rest of the Rattlesnake Review 12's into the mail; I've decided to wait until next week, after the Christmas rush. I'm sorry for that.
Ex-Sacramento Poet Debbie Guerrette sent us a fitting poem, though, to leave posted until we get back to what we call normal around here:
THE SNAKE IS:
Not expecting any pardon
Not allowed at nativity
Not invited to the garden
but
God put him in the arc
made him a home in Kansas
where he left his mark
for
On every flag we see
sincerely he says,
“Don’t tread on me”
and
to honor this holiday we take
he sends rich dreams to you
Happy Christmas from that snake
—Debbie Guerrette
_______________________
Thanks, Debbie! My sentiments, exactly. Rich dreams to everybody, and a Happy Christmas.
—Medusa
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry, photos and art, and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)