Tag Archives: mississippi river
Overheard
Never been to Colorado. Don’t know if I ever will get over that desire to go East. With exceptions, a 10-mile strip of land on either bank of the Mississippi River is my invisible electric fence. A fuchsia corduroy overcoat … Continue reading
Filed under Afternoon Poems
Channels
This is no Big Sur, Dingle Peninsula, Wasque— this is somewhere in the middle. A river that has starred as the main character in novels, caused cities to be built, become a final stop for the tormented and despairing. It … Continue reading
Filed under Day Poems
Where’s the Frozen River?
I sit beneath a painting of Kerouac in thick shades of gray and try to digest the fact that I am older than he will ever be. I should be so privileged to pass Emily and Virginia. I’ll prefer mine … Continue reading
Filed under Morning Poems
REM Kiosk
A dream is only as true as its recounting. Insert stalks of wheatgrass embedded in translucent partitions for accent. An ocean spilling forth on all sides gets pulled inside out to become a Midwestern lake not frozen enough to hold … Continue reading
Filed under Civil Twilight or Dawn Poems
Surreal Ocean
Tide rises from all sides—this surround won’t bring back my father’s words of advice. In a dream, I refuse to walk along the granite bluff with my sisters—this is no return to Ireland. This is what gets made up before … Continue reading
Filed under Civil Twilight or Dawn Poems
Red
The dress I wore that first day of school. A pair of overalls for climbing stairs. A house boat docked on the east bank of the Mississippi. Free parking signs in the Warehouse District. Both my alma maters complemented with … Continue reading
Filed under Morning Poems, Night Poems
Realia
It smells ripe today—the river. Hope its wreaking havoc is done by the time those waters flow over your bed, against your banks, under other bridges sturdy so far.
Filed under Afternoon Poems
Singles
Hubs and nests and courses and old men fishing in the Mississippi too close to the urban fray to be anything but what they are. I’m the fringe life centrally located. City hermits will not unite. But on anonymous jaunts … Continue reading
Filed under Afternoon Poems
Underpass Echoes
This spill onto pavers beneath the bridge beside the river is her reminder—there are other things worth fearing more than an errant fish hook, a fast woman walking and expecting past you, even this sting on scraped knee and toe. … Continue reading
Filed under Afternoon Poems
Lysistrata Dreaming
Not one of your death wish missions into another war torn land. This is mine: a summer night dream, sweaty without covers. The things we used to do together—drink, run, get naked in waterfalls, have sex, smoke years later—I don’t … Continue reading
Filed under Night Poems
