Month: February 2011

Missed

/ lovizmytrio / Leave a comment

what have i missed
with the words that won’t end,
what smile or giggle
did my daughters try to send?

how can i allow
your endless conversation
to suck up my night
with this awkward situation?

if he would do his work
and you would let it go
then perhaps we wouldn’t have to
fill our worry-carts with woe.

but no one here seems to care
that waiting is not enough
that sloth and slacking are rewarded
–hard work a dire rebuff.

what have i missed
with the words that never end
that haunt my insomnia
with a world i cannot mend?

Big Brother

/ lovizmytrio / Leave a comment

Dr. Mr. Orwell,

You were right.
Big Brother hovers,
an omnipotent cloud
sneaking into every crevasse
of the glaciers
he’s placed in front of
our harrowed steps
up the mountain
none of us knew we’d climb.

Without a word
escaping our lips,
he knows our thoughts
and places his restrictions,
garishly flashing sound-bitten ads
on the pages
we once were able
to read in silence.

Just like Winston,
we seek shelter
among proletariats
who suck at our teets
with wanton thirst
for all that he will not allow
us to provide for them.

Big Brother has ensured
no shelter,
for it would detract
from the icy hike
he has put in place of
the rolling surreal hills
of the life
he won’t allow us to imagine.

I ask now,
as you toss in your tormented grave,
how so closely you could examine
the future,
how so bitterly you could speak
of the unwanted brutality of truth,
how so easily you could predict
the world we would rather depart
than be a part of.

February Daughters (2011)

/ lovizmytrio / 1 Comment

Isabella

infinitesimally eight
you round out your three-day weekend
with consecutive sleepovers
endless games and dives
at Casa Bonita
and round-the-block singing
of Girl Scout songs
in your train of Brownie vests.

infinitesimally eight
i hope you will remember
this bright moment
of your youth
with these words you will
someday read.

Mythili

Mixing in with the older set
Yearning for forever-gone blankey
True to your matter-of-fact words
Heatedly demanding justice
Imaginative to no end
Loving the art that shapes your life
Inundated with the realities of school.

Riona

tears and sobs take control of you
at the mere mention of Daddy’s death
a death unknown, far-reaching
and my arms can’t console
the sensitive child
who needs to nestle
in his shoulder,
dentist-forbidden thumb in mouth,
your cries simmering down
to the ever emanating warmth
of his love for you,
his Daddy’s Girl.

Geology Lesson

/ lovizmytrio / Leave a comment

If Earth really is a Slinky
as a geologist might say
then we’re as small as a pinkie
on Earth’s hand of plates that sway.

Zooming in first are primary P waves
try to beat 225 miles per hour!
earthquakes move in with S waves
secondarily destructing a rocky shower.

If you like the ocean you’ll love to meet Rayleigh
who’ll churn and roll you like the tide coming in
Love’s side to side shaking takes the hands of Rayleigh
collapsing buildings and causing the world to spin.

When an earthquake occurs, who is at fault?
plates move together when pressure mounts
just imagine a shaker full of salt
breaking Earth’s crust as the mantle surmounts

Superman saved the San Andreas Fault
a strike-slip fault along the west coast
where boundaries slide in angry assault
he pushed up the crust without a boast!

In normal and reverse faults, you’re vertical
normal plates diverge and tension gets weak
reverse plates collide with a crack horizontal
forcing compression that leaves Earth bleak.

Under the sea reverse faults thrust up
tsunamis from earthquakes worse than on land
the plates dive under–you might say subduct
going back into the palm of Earth’s hand.

You may think Earth is as hard as a rock
but geologists tell you it’s more like elastic
rebound theory stresses a fault that’s locked
friction and energy cause a quake that’s fantastic.

If Earth really is a Slinky
as a geologist might say
human beings are quite dinky
in the cycle of plates that sway.

Homecoming

/ lovizmytrio / 2 Comments

today could be
that night after Homecoming
lying on the floor
of her room
when you and i whispered
into the night,
our teenage angst
spilling out
like blood on the carpet,
revealing our souls,
sealing our friendship.

they play at our feet now,
interrupt our talk
with nursing needs
finding toy needs
food on the table needs,
but our mouths
spill out words
in a rush of
it’s-been-too-long
and
it’ll-never-be-long-enough.

and just as your oldest
and my youngest
find their comfortable niche
of bug-and-Tinker-Toy play,
you and i,
just like that night after Homecoming
when you moved from friend to best,
fulfill our needs
girl-like, loose,
our old and new selves
coming home
at last.

Tickets

/ lovizmytrio / Leave a comment

yes you have tickets
and you ask permission
as if i have a choice

i clutch the silver plastic
letting the words fall
in between the lines

your tickets were for us
but just as back then
you teach me exchange rates

i wonder what we are worth
or how much you paid for them
does it even matter to you?

Uprooting

/ lovizmytrio / 1 Comment

could i uproot us all
for the fear that returns
year after year after year
for my sister’s presence
my life our lives their lives
could i uproot us all?

i wonder how much
you would hate me
you would learn to hate me
they would hate me
if i made such a choice.

Whisper

/ lovizmytrio / Leave a comment

funny how you mask yourself
for their protection
and i wear the button
proudly on my jacket,
picture-whispering
my beliefs for all to see.

when your thoughts
bubble up out of you
in an eruption of disparity
from the tight-necked clothes
you’ve kept around you,
the lava stings my view
of who i thought you were.

you wait for molten rock
to form as ash settles,
but i am trapped underneath
the red flow from your mantle,
unable to break through the crack
in the crust you chose to expose,
unable to even whisper what i see.

Wrapped

/ lovizmytrio / Leave a comment

with my ear to the carpet
the cathartic words
emanated from his lips
the drumbeat heavy on my skin.

wrapped in blankets
that couldn’t keep me warm
i played the tunes
time after tenuous time.

my mother came in
stood in the kitchen
dishing up the pasta
singing right along.

she never noticed
the untouched plate
the hours on the couch
or the music that i couldn’t turn off.

i stand here now
wrapped in winter coat
that can’t keep me warm
and remember the heartbreak cold.

Filling Our Empty Spaces

/ lovizmytrio / Leave a comment

it’s Valentine’s Day
and decked out in red,
heart earrings in place,
ready for my Brownie tea party,
i tuck cookies into mailboxes
and begin my day.

the words on the screen
jump out at me,
ripping all the love
from this ever-loving day
straight from my heart
as i embrace the truth
of what they will miss.

my chili lunch,
my box of chocolate strawberries,
my desire
are left uneaten
as i move through the motions,
counting the minutes
until i am safe to let
everything out in
words
tears
screams
that no one will hear.

but i can’t.
it is not about me
or my mistake
or anyone’s miscommunication.
it is about what is best for them,
and before you even close the door,
i know you will listen.

we sit at the circular table,
each sharing our version
of the empty spaces
that lie before us.

and before the moment
can slip between our fingers,
you help me find the words
i didn’t know i had,
filling our empty spaces,
reminding me why i love it here,
how you listen,
how you lead,
solve problems,
dry the tears
that now creep back into
the corners of my eyes
as i write these words.

because there are no words
to truly describe
the love that is here
in this room, this school,
this place where the students come first,
where you stand tall
and step aside
in the same graceful moment.