Issue 1:
Balance
Janet I. Buck
Home
Welcome
Contents
Contact Us
Join Our Mailing List
What's New
Site Map
Site Search
Cactus Concentration Thorns
It's 5:00 a.m. and I'm mad.
My sweatshirt is a mop
in a water-bucket
of deep-fried nerves
and the hospital staff
is feeding me courage
like peanut butter
on a broken cracker.
Words are wet Band-Aids
that slip as patches on a tire.
I remain, once more,
in traction of fear
that this morning's conversation
with balanced bones
will be my last.
Smiles are a little somber,
wide-screen for guests,
and cactus concentration wins.
The Six Commandments
of the crippled crevasse
are these:
1. Thou shall not pine at pity's tree.
2. Thou shall not cry.
3. Thou shall not fall.
4. Thou shall retain some dignity.
5. Thou shall not show the clots of blood.
6. Thou shall not ever dust for prints
of wayward ghosts.
Taboo-tattoo-caboose of need--
a pubic shrub that no one sees.
~Janet I. Buck
Janet teaches writing and literature at the college level. Her poetry and essays have appeared in journals, anthologies, and e-zines world-wide. Email.
© 1999 by Janet I. Buck. All Rights Reserved.
© 2000-2002 by Cayuse Press. All Rights Reserved.
This page updated April 23, 2002.