“Water, water, every where Nor any drop to drink” –Coleridge It is her touch I remember as soft and willowy as a drop of dew. The fingerprint that claims a part of my soul, her touch so soft is what she eats now slipping down without the choke. The vee of geese upon the wing,Continue reading “Valentine singing on an open sleeve”
Author Archives: Anne Birkam
The poet sang of concrete
The poet sang of concrete and paradise destroyed, the dollar stores are ringing up landfill fodder for the gulls. And when the bittern finds his habitat banned from our state, we know the ducklings roaming Lansing with their crutches have deemed to legislate away all the living – a person tries not to hate butContinue reading “The poet sang of concrete”
Of teargas and borders
It is ever the poor we blame, the precipice on which they stand requires a nudge and a shrug and then we can turn to the reeling – our spider lives mask this visage of ourselves, the spinning of webs of conspiracy, the jumping from hoax to hoax, the fox has become the hunter, cunningContinue reading “Of teargas and borders”
Lavender women
I give a day of thanks for the ones I cannot equal, leaves of steel falling from this tree – the mighty oak towering, sprung from the smallest acorn, fed by the brownest soil, nutrient rich. brown, black, rich is the source of life, I can never equal them but I can give this dayContinue reading “Lavender women”
We the people
Don’t let the wind blow your dreams away. Don’t let the rain bury joy beneath the sea. This land is yours while you circle the sun and fear will never let your heart stray from what you know is the path of common cause – each man’s shoulder waits for a head to rest, eachContinue reading “We the people”
All the world resides
All the world resides in a grain of sand bound to bring discomfort when wet upon the skin. Venomous face whether punched or body slammed the words keep on twitting no breath for the living to catch – it is a feat for ladies mulling over tea. All the world will wash through a grainContinue reading “All the world resides”
The space between words
Into the lull steps Isabella – late summer comes the chipping when the cardinal desists from singing. No words, no words can ever match empathy like the wave upon the shore – the still is everything, muffled ever more. The voice of silence is a woman breaking, the measure of sound is a girl noContinue reading “The space between words”
I will not normalize evil
Dred Scott pled before us, and Plessy stood his ground, history is so ominous when it massages the ego of difference. The old boys required blinders on our eyes when they lashed the African to a funeral pyre. I live in a sad sad country where children become brides, they tell you it doesn’t happen,Continue reading “I will not normalize evil”
Iniquity
The fact of a gas chamber is unremarkable. Like ragweed in late summer, giving the itch of nose, it comes and goes, one century after another. A death march is easily foretold. Scheherazade, that spinner of tales, could not be surer of how such an incident repeats itself. Infinite recklessness and chance – only fortuneContinue reading “Iniquity”
Bubble men
There is a pattern in the sky of dark, in the starry, starry night. Hunters and lions swing amid cumulus, weaving circles into lies. The old boys are at it, those highway blues again, I’m singing, singing, singing, those highway blues again. These men who live in bubbles like an unbrewed cup of tea –Continue reading “Bubble men”
Anne's mediocre poetry 