Day 16

Getting to Work
April 16, 2009

The clock in the kitchen
is two minutes ahead of the
one on the wall
and five minutes behind
the digital on my dashboard.

The porch thermometer
reads four degrees cooler
than the bank on 39th
and three degrees warmer
than the pawnshop on 82nd.

The gas gauge hasn’t worked
in years, so I try to keep
my karma running smoothly:
one eye on the low fuel light
and both fingers crossed.

It’s seventeen miles from my
driveway to the school
parking lot; the shortcut:
two miles shorter, ten minutes longer,
a thousand leaves lovelier.

I always arrive on time,
whatever time I happen to arrive.
My secret, you see, is not
to be accurate, it’s to know
precisely how inaccurate I am.

Day 15

This Work We Do
April 15, 2009

This work we do is Holy:
etching words into air,
sketching the outlines
of moments in amber,
wrapping our days
in the ribbon of verse.

What greater Gift
can we give?

By Wrigley, Day 20

Wish Wish Wish
April 20, 2009

I wish that wish
that everyone found
the wish to fly
or sink into the ground.
I wish that wish
that everyone found
to have a pet to do a thing
I wish that wish
that everyone is sharing.

Try Reading It Out Loud

After Ella Fitzgerald
April 14, 2009

ba ba-b-ba ba-b-ba-ba-bah!
ba ba-b-ba ba-b-ba-ba-bah!
ba ba-b-ba ba-b-ba-ba-bah!
bah bah bah bah ba-b-ba bah!

bah bah bah bah ba-b-ba bah!
bah bah bah bah ba-b-ba bah!
ba-b-ba-ba ba-b-ba-ba ba-b-bah-bah!
ba-b-ba-ba ba-b-ba-ba ba-b-bah-boom!

Boom boo-d-boom boo-d-boom boom boom!
Boom boo-d-boom boo-d-boom boom boom!
Boom-dee-boom boom-dee-boom boo-dee boom boom boom!
Boom-dee-boom boom-dee-boom boo-dee boom boom boom!

Ska bop bop ba-dah, ska dee bop bop bop
Ska boop-doo-boo-doo, skoo dee boop boop boop

Ska bop bop ba-dah, ska dee bop bop bop
Ska boop-doo-boo-doo, skoo dee boop boop boop

Skoo-be-doo, skoo-be-doo, skoo skoo be doo
Skoo-be-doo, skoo-be-doo, skoo skoo be doo
Skoo skoo skoo, skoo skoo be-doo
Skoo skoo skoo, skoo skoo be-doo
Skoo-be-doo, skoo-be-doo, skoo skoo be doo
Skoo-be-doo, skoo-be-doo, skoo-be-doo-be boom!
Boom-dee-boom boom-dee-boom boom boom dee boom!
Boom-dee-boom boom-dee-boom boom boom dee boom!

Boom boom boom, boom boom d-bah!
Boom boom boom, boom boom d-bah!
bah bah bah bah bah b-ba bah!
bah bah bah bah bah b-ba bah!

ba b-ba, ba-b-ba, ba ba b-dah!

My Turn

In response to this guy and this guy, I thought I'd give it a shot. It was hard and I'm not satisfied, but there are a few nice lines.

I Will Sing America, Too
April 13, 2009

Let me sing Her major chords:
the outstretched fingers of eager skyscrapers,
the lithe arms of Her forests.
I will sing the whir and buzz of industry
and the solitude of Her literature.
She is architects and gardeners,
inventors and creators,
technicians and dreamers.
My ears ring with the slow blues and
the jangle of jazz,
the raunchy rock and roll,
and the fierceness of rap –
American gifts to the soundscape of history.

Her song is endless and sweet,
endlessly sweet,
and I smell sugar as I sing,
as I sing America, too.

And let me sing in minor keys:
the slouching of Her youth
(and elders, too),
the bridges that sometimes fall
(and towers, too).
I will sing a song of sawblades
and mudslides,
a cacophony of concrete
and landfills,
where “superfund” sounds
like super-fun
and money can buy
happiness.
For a limited time.

Her song is endless and sad,
endlessly sad,
and I burn sugar as I sing,
as I sing America, too.

Let us sing this dissonant song,
let us sing it together.
Revel in Her complex harmonies,
Her syncopated rhythm,
Her distant, shifting beat.

Let us sing this endless song,
endlessly strong,
and sing sugar as we do,
as we sing America, too.

I Advise You Against Reading This ..

One Dozen Eggs
April 12, 2009

The resident eggspert
in egg-detection
felt eggstremely
perplexed.

Everywhere she
eggsplored,
she came up
empty.

The desk?
The beds?
The bookshelves
and treasure chests?
Rejection,
dejection,
and, without eggception,
a lack of detection.

Eggstraordinary, really.

Even though the weather
was eggstra terrible, she ventured
into the garden.
No eggs under veggies:
fledgling lettuce and peppers
left everything eggsposed,
eggcept eggs.
Even the deck was bereft.

When she was ready
to surrender,
head west,
and end up
an eggceptionally
depressed
eggspatriate,
eggziled forever
in the desolate desert,
she had an eggcellent idea:

Check the schedule.
Egg-detection was on
the next day’s agenda!

By Wrigely, Day 11

I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder
April 11, 2009

I wonder what it's like
to be a bird,
sailing high in the sky,
not speaking a word.

I wonder what it's like
to be a dog,
barking at airplanes
and gnawing on a log.

I wonder what it's like
to be a tree,
with branches so high
they reach the sky,
and leaves so
green, green, green.

By Wrigley, Day 7

My Life
April 7, 2009

My life is like
a picture book -
storied on paper,
happy and content,
magical and mysterious,
cute and lovely,
full of cats and kittens
and dogs and puppies.
That
is what
my life
is like.