5/4/07

Last Minute


This poem was written by January O'Neil, author of Poet Mom (http://poetmom.blogspot.com/), a wonderful blog about poetry and writing. Ms. O'Neil is a verifiable sassy lady, a mom, and a fantastic writer to boot. I always enjoy reading her entries, and I especially loved this poem. Thanks, January, for allowing us to share it here!

Last Minute
Say nice sweater. Say I look beautiful.
Say the rain is a shadow inside my body.
Maybe you meant to say shallow. Maybe
I was mistaken. Maybe I was only thinking
about the rain and someone’s woolen voice
wrapped around me. Say I am an Amazon rainforest,
with a canopy of leaves protecting my understory.
Say the words so I can stretch them across my dry,
cracked body. Say that gravity is just the earth
pulling me back home. Tell me all of this
and I’ll tell you how I treaded
an ocean of indecision to get to this sweater,
its woven imperfections under the heavy layers of winter.
Tell me how lucky I am to recognize irony
as an element of beauty, that I chose something last minute,
because in real life that’s the only real minute we have.
Tell me I look like rain today.
Tell me I must be mistaken.

1 comment:

January said...

Gosh, thanks for the kind words. Your post made me take a second look at the poem (found a typo--hate when I do that).

Anyway, thanks for stopping by my blog. Looking forward to reading your posts.