The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poem Thread, 9/13/07

[BlueIris]

"The New Apartment: Minneapolis"

The floorboards creak.
The moon is on the wrong side of the building

and burns remain
on the floor.

The house wants to fall down
the universe when earth turns.

It still holds the coughs of old men
and their canes tapping the floor.

I think of the Indian people here before me
and how last spring white merchants hung an elder

on a meathook and beat him
and he was one of The People.

I remember this war
and all wars.

and relocation like putting the moon in prison
with no food and that moon already a crescent,

but be warned, the moon grows full again
and the roofs of this town are all red

and we are looking through the walls of houses
at people suspended in air.

Some are baking, with flour on their hands,
or sleeping on floor three, or getting drunk.

I see the businessmen who hit their wives
and the men who are tender fathers.

There are women crying or making jokes.
Children are laughing under beds.

Girls in navy blue robes talk on the phone all night
and some Pawnee is singing 49s, drumming the table.

Inside the walls,
world changes are planned, bosses overthrown.

If we had no coffee,
cigarettes, or liquor,

says the woman in room twelve,
they’d have a revolution on their hands.

Beyond walls are lakes and planes,
canyons and the universe;

the stars are the key
turning in the lock of night.

Turn the deadbolt and I am home.
I have walked dark earth,

opened a door to nights where there are no apartments,
just drumming and singing;

The Duck Song, The Snake Song,
The Drunk Song.

No one here remembers the city
or has ever lost the will to go on.

Hello aunt, hello brothers, hello trees
and deer walking quietly on the soft red earth.

—Linda Hogan

[RetroLounge]

1. I've liked this one since I first read it

:applause:

RL

[BlueIris]

2. Yep. It's one of those that lingers.

[BlueIris]

3. Kick.

[wildhorses]

4. now this one i can wrap my head around

No one here remembers the city
or has ever lost the will to go on.


would that it be so.

thanks for this one :loveya:

[BlueIris]

5. Yep.