beliefs

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.

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?

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.

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.

Unsatisfactory

/ lovizmytrio / Leave a comment

You deserve a poem
for your partial proficiency.

You deserve all the words
that you take from our mouths,
that you tell us to tear down
from our walls,
that you banish from our rooms
in the form of literature
(the very thing you dare assess)

for the lock-and-key,
starve-and-dehydrate,
Nazification of a test
you put on a pedestal,
a test they all detest,
for which they could care less.

You deserve a poem
for your unsatisfactory mark
upon the teachers you denigrate,
the teachers you should emulate.

Perhaps I will learn Morse Code,
buy the appropriate paraphernalia,
and send my message over the airwaves.
Would you listen to me then?

Spell

/ lovizmytrio / Leave a comment

her words escaped you
two years ago,
your never-sit-still antics
keeping your ears
from listening.

i read aloud now,
my attempt at
a Scottish accent
as pitiful as the pink umbrella
Hagrid uses to
pull out the pig’s tail,
and you sit, still as a stone,
asking for another chapter.

though the words
your Daddy and I have loved
for almost as long as
your Daddy and I have been
together
are just now
casting their spell on you,
i am grateful for
whatever words will lead you
into our love of literature.

Fancy

/ lovizmytrio / 2 Comments

i don’t need a fancy gym or P-90x
i just rode thirty miles with the Vittetoe Express
my bike, tag-along, and a trailer daisy chain
may look to others just a little bit insane

but you’re popping out seven hundred a year
i spent eleven on coffee and cheer
when it’s sixty degrees in January
my legs and arms made a workout fairy

yes, it took six hours to visit the zoo
but i still made a deal better than you
i didn’t sacrifice one moment from my girls
and that beats all the muscles from your fancy curls.

Good

/ lovizmytrio / Leave a comment

you want a set of different words
more complex than
the one i offer.
you may have a string
of compliments sitting pretty
on the poster they made for you,
but strangers’ mouths
could never put forth
what i see every day.

i wish i could wipe the words
you imagine i might say
right out of your mind.
our exchange is a hushed whisper
in this semi-dark classroom;
there is no space, no time
to envelop the elegance of thought
you put forth in everything
that you do for them,
that you ask them to do for you.

good may not be the response
you walked across the school to hear;
but just as i cannot define its significance
in the midst of the chaos i face
every time i leave your classroom,
i cannot define the perfect peace,
the depth of knowledge,
or the admiralty of your daily lessons
with any word, or words,
that would be adequate.