Outstanding Poet of National Poetry Month Award

Thank you Jingle and all who voted for me. This is great!

Bootsie Marie

When I was about seven or eight years old, my older sister by two years had a funky pair of embroidered navy, zip-up, knee-high boots. I wanted a pair-bad. But I have the unfortunate luck of having two skinny raccoon feet. The toes are great for grasping tree branches, but skinny feet suck when you need to buy shoes. It’s hard to find my size. Add to that my slender legs, and it’s impossible to find knee-high boots.

Until yesterday.

Imagine my elation when I found not one, but two pairs of boots that fit…for the first time in my life. Naturally, I bought them both. This was, after all, a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Just call me Bootsie Marie.

YIIIIIIIPEEEEE!

And so in honor of my beautiful new footwear:

A short, sweet Haiku for Thursday’s Poet’s Rally

I cannot describe

the excitement of finding

the perfect black boot!

 

 

Be still my heart!

©2010 frayedges and http://www.frayedges.wordpress.com

Yes, I know the post is a day early, but this could not wait!

Third Time’s a Charm

Tick tock
Happy birthday to me.
A dinner to celebrate
interrupted by gunmen
spent on the floor
huddled under a table.
Caught in a drug war
no more
I flee for better places.
Months without work,
without home
leave me defeated.

Tick tock
Happy birthday to me.
New jobs and
expectations of progress
and peace and success
shattered by
the discovery of a lump
so little
you wonder how it can have
such an impact.

Tick tock
Happy birthday to me.
I hesitate to celebrate.
Third time’s a charm.
I can’t dare to trust
that this time
finally
maybe
it will be
a happy birthday
for me.

©2010 frayedges and http://www.frayedges.wordpress.com

The Spark

Expectant faces greet the day
A frown develops
What did she say?
Repeating slowly, she clarifies
Until a spark shines in their eyes
They understand a word or phrase
And seek to use it different ways.
They roll the language off their tongues
It buzzes through likes wires strung
taut and lyrical across the sky.
She ends the class quite satisfied.

©2010 frayedges and http://www.frayedges.wordpress.com

Inevitable

So I was sifting through some of my writing and came across this poem I wrote in 2000. Considering my recent dance with cancer, the irony is not lost on me:

Avoid heart attacks
by eating
low-fat food
and drinking skim milk
No meat here.

Avoid cancer
Only hormone free,
preservative free,
non-genetically altered,
100% all natural, organic,
vitamin enriched
products.

Protect your liver
avoid alcohol consumption
except,
of course,
for that one glass
of red wine
that will keep the old ticker
happy.

Exercise, eat right
don’t forget the
recommended daily allowance.

Die anyway.

©2010 frayedges and http://www.frayedges.wordpress.com