Wednesday, August 17, 2005

God's Messenger

It's that sort of day--the kind when birds
fly straight for the sun, when mice run
in circles till their tails twist into knots,
and squirrels argue endlessly atop telephone poles.

The mercury explodes in Sam Sander's garage
when the temperature roars over 120 degrees
and Mable Jenkins breaks her big toe-
her pot of cold cucumber soup wriggling
and protesting withdrawal from her fridge
till it slips loose from arthritic hands.

It's a day when frustrated lovers lie separate,
panting on sweat-drenched sheets, and long-married
couples grump about old fissures and decide they should
have married their childhood sweethearts, after all.

On such a day, a day ripe for miracles, a day
prime for Gary Cooper to ride in on the twelve o'clock
special, a vagabond appears,tells anybody
who'll listen about dire deeds forgiven
and roads paved in gold, roads leading
anywhere and everywhere but here.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I like this one very much. I am going to add it to best of.

d.

Pris said...

Ryan
Thank you. And thanks for the comment on my blog.

D
How super!

Pris said...

Thanks, Michael. I don't know if you've read the novelist, Alice Hoffman or not, but her books are filled with the surreal and I've devoured all of them (I think). I was thinking of her when I wrote this one. You might try one of her books, sometime. Not an author to easily forget.

tammy said...

Pris, I love this!

Pris said...

Hi Tammy
Thanks! And see my note to Michael above. If you like this style you'd enjoy Alice Hoffman, too.

Geoff Sanderson said...

Pris, I love it to bits! We've all experienced those days - even here in cool Brittania,since global warming, we get them. It didn't seem at all surreal to me - just normal 'Pris'at her best (I think you've spoiled me for 'normal' lol.)

Geoff Sanderson said...

Pris, I love it to bits! We've all experienced those days - even here in cool Brittania,since global warming, we get them. It didn't seem at all surreal to me - just normal 'Pris'at her best (I think you've spoiled me for 'normal' lol.)

Geoff Sanderson said...

PS - hey, perhaps it was surreal after all - it posted my comments TWICE!

Pris said...

G
Thanks!:-) (and you mean you were normal once? lol)