Verse.

Bare Foot and Rice Paddy

The mud sucks out
of the ground and up
between toes, down
over the foot in
the middle of the rice paddy.
A farmer looks up,
angry threats rain down.
The foot runs out,
the blood flukes seep in
and drink to their good fortune.

Latency or Thousand Year Old Egg

Look around! Look around!
Every thing's still,
frozen in the Earth,
hard, immovable.
Like a buried egg
Laid in the ground
for weeks,
you emerge
black, gelatinous—
a delicacy!—
in your 1,000-year-old
incarnation

Long Hair

I wear my hair long
At thirty nine
To be the pretty pretty princess
That I was at five.
That I was talked out of 
at six
kicked out of at nine
shamed out of at twelve
was too cool for at fifteen
was too afraid to be at twenty

Winging it

One by one they’re flung
by an enormous catapult.
The elephants land with only a small, distant thud.

Is this too much?
Metaphors should be savored—
shaken, not stirred.
Elephants, my Darling, fling far too easily
as we rapidly thrust toward middle age.

Forgotten promises.
Loves unkempt.
Tossed resentments, larger than life.
This is not your mother’s Almost-Forty
or what granny always said would happen.

Cry, “Freedom! Incoming!”
Unabashed.

Karen’s End

My gaze turns back towards earth 
as a finch wings out of sight.
My heart grows heavy again. 
Tiny creature,
    large possibilities.
          Flight and release,
               fleeting escape.
Life curves like the brown walnut, 
round and cyclical.  
Much more work to be done,
last breaths are taken inside.  
The finch returns.
Whispers alight on my ear, 
bearing a soothing message. 
Her last tears dry
     as my first fall;
            My journey begins;
                      Karen's ends.

He Comes to Me in Pieces

He comes to me in pieces:
A dirty blond curl,
A loose shirttail,
A grin.
An English word
in Chinese accent.
A James Taylor album—
the first I'd ever seen.

The parts that arrive now
come only in small snippets
of half memories:

Wu Kai Sha pool—
camp, circa 1978:
A deadpan face
as he strikes a pose
and lands on his butt
on a diving board,
flipping; half-diving
disappearing into the blue water.

He later struggled with the drink, I heard
and with money
and stuff—always stuff—
it consumed him entirely.
But these were only
secondhand bits;
news across the waves.

A red sports car carried him away
to a farm.
He bought it forever
in one shot.
Sweet baby James,
the whole boy of you
remains elusive.

Friendship Is…

Dearest Friend, 
Utilize my proximity!
Employ our propinquity!
I’m always here for you.
Anytime.
Really!
You can tell me anything, Darling!
It’s what I’m here for!
I won’t tell a soul.
Your secret’s safe with me.

Yes, Lovey,
What would we do without
One another?
Our closeness is to be commended!

Kiss, kiss,
Hug, hug,
Ta-ta,
Talk soon,
Xoxo,
Must run.

© 2020 Erin Barrett. All Rights Reserved.