susanstinson: (Default)
susanstinson ([personal profile] susanstinson) wrote2006-07-26 09:10 am

Peaches in July

Praise for the fat old ladies.
Praise our bristles.
Praise our groaning in the morning
as we negotiate our nightgowns,
appliances and pills.

Praise the unquenchable carnality
of our coughs, full of moist depths,
and the way our mouths hang open
and our faces converge in gatherings
of ineffectual concentration
as we give another round of dominoes
our (impure? because, after all,
competititive and human) best thoughts.

We lose, of course, but play again.
The nightgown tears on the seam above the breast,
but we wear it, still, unmended,
while young women make big curls
in their hair with juice cans,
the results glossy and time-consuming,
as if the war were never over and
victory gardens were all lucky girls might sow.



Lake Buchanan, TX 2006

[identity profile] angiereedgarner.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 01:45 pm (UTC)(link)
So I try to believe. In person it is obvious when people are engaged but struggling-- it is written all over their bodies. It is hard work to stay in the presence of a piece of art of whatever sort that challenges.

[identity profile] susanstinson.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 01:50 pm (UTC)(link)
hard work, and also pleasure, and so worth it