UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS

Start with the late moon
Then the hollow sigh
The hollow tooth
The disease-addled squirrel--
Pelt dotted with tumors--its movements slow
Dumb

Empty pink curl of an ear pressed
to a silent mesh of hard plastic

The computer cache bearing witness
to late night desperations
Barren seed
The wing-flicking cockroach that got away

Cool breeze
Hot sun
Stiff muscle
Wine-stained tongue

Leafless vines are climbing inside
through the cracks in the walls

Broken-off striped grasshopper leg
The eternal staccato pierce of
hungry cardinal chick

Endless bleeding like a cask uncorked--
Oh sacrificial lamb!

And the work I do strengthens me

This hollow wind swelling like an ocean tide
Thick stench of death seeping out from the brushpile

My stiffening joints, groggy eyes
cracking fingernails, patient spider
Scraping branch mewling like a cat

How did an hour erode away just like that?

Sometimes the pressure of comprehending what fits
Between the narrow rims of my reading glasses
Petrifies me with tension--
I can feel my dowager’s hump
Taking shape from the ache in my nape

I am so weak, it is so humid
Rivers of sweat run down my back
as I carry on this dialogue

Sometimes it seems I’ve spent my entire life
Waiting
For the call that never comes
 
 

7/28/2002
Ingrid Karklins