Photograph
By Andrea Gibson
I wish I was a photograph
tucked into the corners of your wallet
I wish I was a photograph
you carried like a future in your back pocket
I wish I was that face you show to strangers
when they ask you where you come from
I wish I was that someone that you come from
every time you get there
and when you get there
I wish I was that someone who got phone calls
and postcards saying
wish you were here
I wish you were here
autumn is the hardest season
the leaves are all falling
and they're falling like they're falling in love with the ground
and the trees are naked and lonely
I keep trying to tell them
new leaves will come around in the spring
but you can't tell trees those things
they're like me they just stand there
and don't listen
I wish you were here
I've been missing you like crazy
I've been hazy eyed
staring at the bottom of my glass again
thinking of that time when it was so full
it was like we were tapping the moon for moonshine
or sticking straws into the center of the sun
and sipping like icarus would forever kiss
the bullets from our guns
I never meant to fire you know
I know you never meant to fire lover
I know we never meant to hurt each other
now the sky clicks from black to blue
and dusk looks like a bruise
I've been wrapping one night stands
around my body like wedding bands
but none of them fit in the morning
they just slip off my fingers and slip out the door
and all that lingers is the scent of you
I once swore if I threw that scent into a wishing well
all the wishes in the world would come true
do you remember
do you remember the night I told you
I've never seen anything more perfect than
than snow falling in the glow of a street light
electricity bowing to nature
mind bowing to heartbeat
this is gonna hurt bowing to I love you
I still love you like moons love the planets they circle around
like children love recess bells
I still hear the sound of you
and think of playgrounds
where outcasts who stutter
beneath braces and bruises and acne
are finally learning that their rich handsome bullies
are never gonna grow up to be happy
I think of happy when I think of you
so wherever you are I hope you're happy
I really do
I hope the stars are kissing your cheeks tonight
I hope you finally found a way to quit smoking
I hope your lungs are open and breathing you life
I hope there's a kite in your hand
that's flying all the way up to orion
and you still got a thousand yards of string to let out
I hope you're smiling
like god is pulling at the corners of your mouth
cause I might be naked and lonely
shaking branches for bones
but I'm still time zones away
from who I was the day before we met
you were the first mile
where my heart broke a sweat
and I wish you were here
I wish you'd never left
but mostly I wish you well
I wish you my very very best
From: Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns
************************************
Andrea Gibson is an amazing, award winning poet. If you've never seen her perform, I highly recommend you look her up on Youtube performing her poetry. She's a hurricane with words, a force to be reckoned with and one of my favorite new poets. I own this book, "Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns" and it's awesome and inspiring. I also have 2 CD's of her performing her poetry: "When the Bough Breaks" and "Bullets and Windchimes" and they're fabulous. She's unlike any other poet I've read or heard.
Here's a quote I read that describes her perfectly: "Andrea Gibson does not just show up to pluck your heart strings. She sticks around to tune them. If being floored is new to you, ya might wanna grab a cushion. Whatever the opposite of fooling someone is, Andrea Gibson does that. Beware of the highway in her grace and the crowbar in her verse." --Buddy Wakefield
It's bitter cold here again in swamp country with more rain on the way. Stay warm and read a great book of poetry today. I'm gonna do just that. Blessings!
~Marion~
"Reading - the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay." ~William Styron
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep." ~Salman Rushdie
4 comments:
Wow! You really had me at Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns. I thought I would probably see a picture of myself in that book. This is why it is such a joy to read a new poet or author....they describe things through such a new vision. Leaves fall as if they are in love with the ground while the trees stand naked and lonely. Who would have thought? But now I will mourn the trees every fall and wonder how the leaves could be so heartless.
Oh, Annie! My heart used to believe in an eternal springtime, but now it's more like an eternal winter. Maybe we'll both be better when the new leaves appear and the dirt is laughing out loud with newborn flowers and baby tomatoes.... Love & blessings, my dear friend...
This one was sad, Marion....but I still like it.
The sun is shining today, but it's still cold and more rain is coming. *sigh*
you couldn't have said it better! excellent recommendation! thanks
Post a Comment