Author: whodeanny

Kitchen

This is one of the poems about which I've received the highest compliments. I think

many of us can relate to it in our own unique contexts.

 

I walked from the kitchen

Slowly stopped and turned around

The gentle bubble of pots on the stove

Sounded warm and beautiful

Inviting, so I went back in

Watching the lid dance over my soup

I noticed the dry, hot smell

Of cumin drowning in the sweet

Black juice of the beans

I felt the smile on my face

And wondered how many times

My granddad stood smiling in his kitchen

With the cornbread beginning to brown


© Gayle Force Press 2003

Dimming Light


Is it still in me

This pattern of love and sharing

That seems so distant

Those long days

And endless nights

Of comfort

Sometimes even consolation

 

I’ve probably burned the bridges

And some fine part of my own damned soul

Right alongside them

Leaving me on this barren plain

With only the dimming light

Of memory

Left here to remind me

 

 

© Gayle
Force Press 2002

 

Retouched

I am excited to see this poem in Myths.


 

I saw you down the aisle

A row behind me and just

Past the middle of it

I noticed you because the two of you

Were leaned really far forward

So I think you saw me first

I’m pretty sure I hit someone

Or something with my elbow

Because when I noticed my arm later

It was puffy and sore

But all I could think about

Was finding you again

So when I left my seat

And grabbed you from yours

I didn’t care that intermission was nearly over

Or that your date,

Oh no, your husband!

Was waiting for you

All I knew was that I was

Suddenly desperate

And had to talk to you again

I don’t remember now

How we got to the street

Everything’s a blur

Until we reached the sunlight

And I could see up close

And feel with my own sweaty fingers

The face I’ve always loved

I cried so hard you tried to silence me

Though I wasn’t sad

Well, not only sad,

Also ecstatic and relieved

And your face!

Your face was still so welcoming

I couldn’t believe it

Then we talked and you told me of your life

And the gracious work you do

I had to ask because I didn’t know it

But what is your new last name

I suppose the joke behind it

Didn’t strike me as funny

No matter though

I just loved to see you laugh once more

But then your laugh became a song

And your voice was not your own

Instead I heard Roberta Flack singing

“Where is the Love?”

While you smiled and turned away

Setting out to silence the song

I’ll never enjoy again

I realized that turning around would be the admission

That I was now awake

With you again absent from me

And while I know I shouldn’t admit it to the world

At that grasping moment,

Just like now,

I couldn’t stop crying

© Gayle Force Press 2008

 

Remix America


Mestizo mulatto hyphenated hybrid

Mixed up creole cultural mélange of meaning

As who we are and what we used to be pale
next to tomorrow’s endless postmodern possibilities of

Perpetual people driven progress

 

All the ‘I’s and ‘US’s can become ‘They’s and ‘We’s sooner
than YouTube presents the next

Macaca spewing hate monger would be divider

Who unites us in disdain

For his antiquated rhetoric of race,

Religion and righteousness

The 3 Rs that used to keep the South backwards,

Black folks scared and the rarely compassionate
conservatives

entrenched in their oh so corrupting power

 

The beauty of the remix

And the America it is frenetically remaking

Is that all the little boxes

Will mean the very same thing in the end

 

More empty spaces we can fill

Exactly as we choose

 

© Gayle
Force Press 2008

 

 

Raw Meat


June 15, 2009

Raw Meat

Baby oil boys club? Instant winner.

I had not guessed Trump as the RAW
buyer. Good stuff.

The World title match is the one I
really wanted to pay attention to this week. They twice teased the Tower of
Doom spot. Super fun. This match was really innovative in terms of using clever
3 way spots. I particularly enjoyed seeing Edge’s Sharpshooter being disrupted
by a sleeper; it was great of JR to fix Grisham’s error as the difference
between a chinlock and a sleeper is vast.

That being said, JR confused me later.
Since when are Triple Threat matches no DQ or countout affairs? And Jeff Hardy
was trying to become World champion for the first time. Huh? What on Earth was
he talking about?

Generally though, JR has been in great
form the last couple weeks, particularly doing a great job of explaining Punk’s
motivation without seeming like an apologist. Grisham and JR are fighting over
small package vs. inside cradle. Not so cute. Funny but not so cute.

So in the last 10 days, CM Punk has
defeated Umaga,  Umaga again in a strap match, won the World title over
Jeff Hardy, defeated IC champ Chris Jericho and now Edge, all clean! What an
incredible difference between this title reign and his first… BTW, Punk’s tape
spelled out MISAWA super classy.

Priceless hasn’t seemed to stick as a
team name for Rhodes and DiBiase so I think More Better should be the new name. The
only folks who’ve said ‘Great American Bash’ are More Better. How odd? Didn’t
someone give them direction on what to say? They were pretty awful but wow, not
to even get the memos. Ish.

Did Vince McMahon refer to someone
else as a pervert?

Both the WWE title and Battle Royale
matches were surprisingly short. Between that and the utter predictability of
RAW’s main event picture, is it any wonder so many folks are turning to
Smackdown instead?

 

TP

Kurt Angle’s voice

It seems bizarre to me that I had not noticed before but in watching Kurt Angle before his Summer Slam title match with Triple H and The Rock, his voice sounds way higher than it is now. I don't remember the transition or an injury that might have caused this but it seems different enough to almost be an entirely different person's voice. Peculiar. 


TP