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| diane klammer |  | 1. Edges (For Georgia O Keefe) you knew the life of art straddles the edges of a knife the moment you painted a flower that grew from the edges of a canvas from the borders past to horizons present the moment you sensed the edges of reality where ideas hovered just below consciousness when your ghosts became real the edges of pain where you traveled to escape when your mind framed the sky before its blur illuminated a building the edges of a day of jazz which wouldn't go away but hummed in your head the edges of marks from your brush which became meaning. 2. Defying Goliath As a matter of survival I believe in "live and let live" as much as possible but have to admit the order Diptera or two winged insects try my patience to the max specifically the mosquitoes who if they had any sense at all of humor or true preservation would quit after being swatted by a gargantuan giant before trying to bite two or three more times ending quite often in mayhem for somebody and although I can appreciate at least in theory the need to survive eat and drink (my blood) in actuality it's quite annoying to be punctured poked injected sucked and infected until a welt appears to itch and swell and in rare cases produce West Nile Disease or Malaria not to mention other buggy happenings like being buzzed persistently in the ear with high pitched moans of thin hunger that can cause the calmest person to run screaming slapping and scratching from the room for cover in a net or under a blanket after slathering the self with poison garlic and citronella finally completely giving up the will to preserve each living creature and just squash the hell out of them. 3. A Hundred Words for Sorrow Thousands of dolphins are slaughtered in Taiji. How can sunrise be peppered with such death? Too much wailing happens before midday. Before the murdering, a mother cradles her young. Children do not understand rising levels of mercury. Waves leave blood prints on stones at morning. Ancient Greeks destroyed men who slew dolphins. Poseidon asked for revenge in their behalf. Tides cannot wash away the crimson in the sea. Can any ray of light reach this kind of suffering? A harvest moon dims when honoring a newborn. Dolphins recognize their reflections in a mirror. White birds fly from darkness where innocents die. Blossoms fall from bridges into a helpless ocean. These lines contain a hundred words for sorrow. | |
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