Hemorrhoid Hilda

I'm dedicating this to my Doctor--Susan thanks for the inspiration****

She is not cancerous
just a
pain in the ass.

A stuffed vein
screaming for
an extra glass of water
that should
cut out the
ice cream
and red meat--
red wine
cut back on
the
brie--
groan,
chocolate.
Add more leafy green
assorted bits of orange
and yellow
to her day.
Allowing
her
to cool down
have fewer flare-ups.
Soothed
by another
woman
named hazel
who
comes
highly
recommended.

Weather Forecast

Stubborn
slant
across
wide
forehead
interests
curious
bystanders.

forecast
predicts
intermittent
periods
of
rain
and
shine.

Clearing
to be
followed
by a
some
growth
spurts
and a
couple
phases
of
hormonal
flux
gradually
descending
into
tolerable
and
intolerable
bouts
of
suffering
eventually
coming
full
circle
learning
then
forgetting
about
weather.

I Came to Hear

I came to hear -- the last train whistle leaving Berlin,

escaping to the West-- the only sane noise

left in a young girls ears, blocking out the bombs,

wiping them clean from her memory.

I came to hear-- the growl of empty

stomachs churning from too many days

of gobbling raw potatoes stolen from the farmer’s field.

Bald headed mothers and children—classified undernourished C.

I came to see --the hopeful stare of a mother with five children

who vainly searched for her husband--

drafted and missing.

I came to smell the horror-- of a child

exhumed a month after he died, wrapped in nothing but a blanket,

reburied by his brothers-- tormented with lit cigarettes and cold steel.

I came to learn-- the truth of a young couple and their infant daughter

who immigrated to a new country

glistening with opportunity,

unschooled in the language,

having only their youth and wellbeing.

I came to know-- a young girl

who helped her parents learn the slang and the dialect,

who lived in the railroad apartment on the second floor,

of an old brownstone in Manhattan, where she learned to hate vegetables

and climb fire escapes.

The one with the crooked bangs

and the stubborn smile

who waited and held on tight,

and never forgot

what her Mother told her

about the horror

of war

evil men,

and shame.

A story passed down

piecing together fractured lives,

seizing-- stolen moments,

storing up-- the laughter

and the tears.

I came to hear.

In Training

At twelve
my biggest problem
was negotiating
a weekly allowance.
I earned money
babysitting
and dusting
furniture
for
fifty cents an hour
but that didn’t cut it
especially
when it came time
to get my first
training bra.

Next to getting my
“friend”
the thing that terrorized
me most
was beefy Braun’s gym class.
Man, even her breasts
had muscles.
She wore a
sports bra
under her man uniform
would often
steal a peak
from the showers.
Watching us change
into that ugly one piece
blue uniform
that was always riding
up my butt,
exposing my red pimply
goose bump legs.
Meanwhile cruel young eyes
would whisper
point and chuckle.
Look-she still wears an undershirt
hiss, hiss, meow!
So I begged the old man to have a heart
I was the oldest
had to train them
on how to raise a girl
Didn’t know how they did it
in the old country
didn’t care.

Spring came early the year
I got initiated
into the big girls club.
A club
that I dropped
in High School
diverted by
other things
until they
discovered that
I was short
on my Gym credits.
Of course
by then
I was
out of training.

Revelation

The best place
to hide
is in the open
just below the nose.
Saying out loud
what others
wouldn’t,
couldn’t.
The best secret
stares you down
dares you
to ask
is it true
or just my imagination?
It must be a coincidence
you couldn’t possibly be
telling me,
could you?

Celtic Wedding

inspired by
Pieter Bruegel’s painting “Wedding Dance in the Open Air”
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/bruegel/pieter_e/10/index.html


Red ribbons flash, strut
in a green triangle to
an undulating
Celtic pulse. A bawdy shade
plucked out of this human chain.

Book Recipe

I've spent half of my life traveling the globe

the other half looking for my reading glasses
remarkable when creating a new recipe.

Directions are as follows:

Preheat in a humid eighty degree oven.

Grease and flour pens.

In a large saucepan melt
½ cup of sentiment
Remove from heat and add 1 cup sugar.
Substitute eggs with thirty
individual portraits and
one hundred three photos
and add one teaspoon of vanilla.

Beat in
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder,
1/2 cup flour, replace salt with
1/2 cup Watercolor Art depicting local flora and fauna
4 cups pithy verse and provocative prose
and add 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder.


Spread evenly into a prepared pan.

Bake in oven for nine months.

Do not overcook.

To serve:

Sprinkle with passion

Charm with dramatic flair

And toast with a wee dram of Scotch.