Little Elegy (1977-1991)

The world was strong
The world was very strong
The peregrine gnashed
In the peregrination's dreams
Words in the hallways
Your cough is a machine
Imagine, she's finally a sexy teenager
At 46, and her grown-up boyfriends
Summon her shape in Sbape magazine
This is a focus group
This is a granting organization
The inside of a car
An animal is a hurt
Hurt inside your shoulder and thigh
I'm throwing pills over a bridge
Things got as ugly
As cherries on a billboard
I slept on the oily river and watched the fires
No one chose me
Particularly the world sunning its muscle on the lawn
Speaking as a gladiator
I felt fine
The falcons and hawks
The solo roadrunner
Dropped mice blithely into the pool
Their ghosts blotted out the steam shovels
Mile by mile
We dusk

Copyright © 2009 Claudia Keelan All rights reserved
from Missing Her
New Issues Poetry & Prose
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission