LAUREL ANN BOGEN
HOPE LEAPS FROM HER CHAIR
and then I mention
Time fries the noodle
all of which goes and goes
thoughtless in a white room
in a headful of wires
copper kitchen of family
this little piggy goes to market
fat neck to chopping board
a mother who slices and dices
and Hope flees from the room
does not reappear like the Virgin Mary
on a fire escape
I pull the switch
and wait across the table
an electric blender
churning for 42 years
I wait, I switch, I wait
THE LAST GIRL IN THE LAND OF THE BUTTERFLIES
- -- for Laura Stickney
Abandoned by my life
I take flight
from the city of angels
in a cataclysm of vivid hues
cry and shriek of sirens
call me to lift my feet and eyes
from the ground
where once I wasted away
in the silent shadow of a stop light
thin thin painful silhouette
hollow chest so shallow
I could not even breathe
sliver of self
disappearing in inky darkness
I fell and fell and fell asleep
until I could only fall
from the grace I never knew
in this lifetime
a tethered cocoon
muffled sobs leaking from midnight pipes
il purgatorio
and the clouds passed over the moon, yes
and then I opened my arms
and then I opened my eyes
and then I opened my heart
Now I stretch my webbed fingers
to the splintered sky and see wings of color
cross before me in the cobalt night
hold them close
hold them to me
Laurel Ann Bogen
© 1997
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