Thursday, January 26, 2012

Ten aren't enough


stop, Stop! Stop the pain!
"Ten fingers and toes",
sigh, watch as he grows.

stop, Stop! Stop the truck!
He hit the lamp post,
for he didn't look back.

stop, Stop! Stop the driver!
He's gone in the twilight
and forgotten his headlights.

stop, Stop! Stop the trip!
He's left home
without his phone.

stop, Stop! Stop for gas!
The tank was low
and he had no cash.

Even if stopped, silent, and still,
our son at the wheel
gives me the chills.



(True story, just because we can count 10 fingers and toes at birth, doesn't mean he'll keep them!)

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Woman of the vine to Gilgamesh:

As for you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full,
make merry day and night. 
Of each day make a feast of rejoicing,
Day and night dance and play!
Let your garments be sparkling fresh,
your hair be washed, bathe in water.
Pay heed to the child holding your hand,
Let your spouse delight in your embrace.
(...for death is the fate of man.)

This the advice from the Epic of Gilgamesh, as the king searched for immortality and mourned the loss of his beloved brother and companion. Written on clay tablets 2000 years BC in Mesopotamia.  Have we learned it yet?

Thursday, January 19, 2012

My poetry reading nights


Where you read from an unfolded square,
drawn as a handkerchief
to catch my tears
and blow my nose.

Where you whisper
prayers to the gods of life
and rattle charms of beaded and feathered gourds
against the chains of death,

Where your hands press open the pages
awarded satin ribbon markers,
the corners creased
by fingers licked with a chocolate tongue,

Where men chant
as softly as the mother 
who closes her eyes to sing
to an infant in the dark,

Where women bare the shame of 
irregular butts and bloody panties,
and where I have to imagine you 
in your wrinkled and sweaty underwear

just to have the courage to enter here…..

Where a slap in the face
might as well be on my upended newborn butt
and I still find the courage to see you
in your wrinkled underwear,  

just to read to you,   here,   tonight….                                         1-19-2012   DGG 

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Lowest winter
sun rose
warming inner
window pane