Tuesday, September 26, 2006

elements, cattle, and mysterious strangers

day 17 at 30/30.

vii.11 - zinc - galvanize
vii.12 - nickel - nikolaus, she said
vii.13 - hop, skip and jump
vii.14 - silver - conversation with a silver chalice
vii.15 - zebra in b flat major
vii.16 - selenium - serenade in f minor: sixteen people, locoweed and cattle at full moon
vii.17 - an angel dangles her legs from a low-lying cloud

an angel dangles her legs from a low-lying cloud

this side of the blue, a cloud is my home. i sit and dangle my legs
in time with the opening of buds. orange is my favourite colour
today. there is no doubt about the flavours of the week: chili pepper,
stale gun smoke, the stubble-covered skin of strangers. i pick up
a knave of spades. my halo wobbles. a story shatters at my feet.

a hand stops me from tying up loose strands. i taste the stranger's
accent before he speaks – four millimetres of butter on a thick slice
of black bread. he wears mystery like a handsewn shirt, like chain
mail on a sunny afternoon. he steps into a circle i have drawn in my
sleep, claims the space of an eyelash, says nothing about my irises.

and i dangle my legs and ask about the last time he held a lemon-
coloured flower in his teeth, the angle of the moon above his city.
he smiles. curiosity killed the cat, he says. but then – a cat has nine
lives. he blinks as if day had come early, twirls my heart around without
lifting a finger. i want to tie him to my apron strings, bruise his mouth,

scratch out the purple lettering of his past. what's in your gun, i ask.
the touch of a butterfly wing, a pinch of sunrise, frivolous pastiches
of an otherworld
; his words melt into my sky. and i dangle my legs
and ask his name, but he has already turned to go. he no longer reads
my lips. but i know what he would reply: a name is a name is a name.



song of the day: clouds across the moon by rah band

2 comments:

Liz said...

Hi Michi,

Hope you are feeling better today.

I've just turned on my volume and heard your music...very nice. :)

Liz

michi said...

nicole - we know each other instinctively. ;)
this time, i really don't know what caused the sleeplessness. it happens. nothing new for me.

liz - thanks. glad you like "my" music. :)

mcclain, thanks very much indeed. :-p
tsk. next time i'll choose someone else to do the dirty thing with, that coi... cop... collab... thingy. and you can write your own poem, in storkish! meanwhile, address complaints to my very busy PA, ms izmjf. so there.

:)