The Blue Overalls

In the midst of a tedious day's
cleaning, I get
a defiant sense

of the luxury of ugly things.

I find a pair of overalls,
not even old, just blue--
naive, unvariegated blue--

as fashion statement,
useless,
and irrelevant to my lifestyle.

On no occasion
would I wear these overalls.
This fact gives me unaccountable joy
and I rush to try them on.

These elements, unacceptable,
are therefore mine, all mine.



for Poetry Instigator - Neruda & The Mundane

Let no philosophy be
analogous to clothes shopping.
I don't wear fashions
as feelings, or vice versa. My life
is poorly stitched by hand
from the scraps of those ideas,
not from whole cloth.




prompt from Matthew Zapruder @ Poetry Instigator:
"...pick a sentence from a book at random. Then, figure out the action or principle underlying the sentence, and begin the poem by saying you (or someone) is NOT doing that action or doesn’t believe in that principle, thereby negating the premise."

This particular li'l poem(above) is more of a fragment and I don't even know for sure what it means, but the prompt was dashed intriguing.

My sentence is from What Color Is Your Parachute? which is the only book of prose I had on hand. For a moment I despaired of finding anything I wanted to negate in this book of positiveness, but this was a pretty good prompt and I managed to grab hold of something.

The sentence: "It is exactly analogous to your going to a clothing store and trying on different suits (or dresses)"

Ardipithecus

Scientists still can't see
the evolutionary advantage
in bipedalism

wish they still had
grasping feet

are on the verge of admitting
it really was God.

Nature's mistakes
don't flourish.



for read write poem

Body of Work

Where is it done?
Is it located in the nerves,
in the back,
in the strength of the thigh
to walk and climb and do
whatever is necessary?

Probably the shoulders
are the seat of the Will
at its most godly--
the origin
of the muscles of embrace,
shoring up all things.



for read write poem

Coverage

We need health care
to stay pretty for you,
Senators.

A sick woman
is an unsightly woman.
(unless of course
we're talking
consumption)


for read write poem

Doctor's Office Diagrams IV

I always conceived
the uterus
to be huge,

also the heart.

Each, I am told,
about the size
of a fist.



for read write poem
yeah a bit slapdash and probably been said before, sorry about that. gotta keep on truckin'.

Doctor's Office Diagrams III

The exemplary human head is drawn
with the hairstyle of an American politician

for the small fraction of humanity
who might find this face reassuring.



for read write poem

Doctor's Office Diagrams II

There's no witchcraft in blood.
It's shaped like nothing,
like practicality, a modified sphere.

Experience is unpainterly.
The beauty of it always lost
to the body that lost the blood.

At best, taboo
or disgust;
at worst, bare fact.



for read write poem

Doctor's Office Diagrams I

Larynx, phonation

The color pallette
has been reduced, and dried
in order to avoid triggering
a too-vibrant self-knowledge

Larynx, inspiration


for october poetry mini-challenge @ Read Write Poem