Anne Birkam

Brother if you are

If someday a man should strike his hand against me no cause, no reason- please do not lift your arm for me; it is easy enough to die, but it would be hard then to live.

And between dead and live how I came to live

Not with roses nor asters, no garden for my hair not with rhododendrons, no I won’t be going there to shed my skin. Not to the soul within the laces of confetti. No, I won’t be going there. Not to Brussels , nor Roma, not to dear Paree, not to London England’s pubs, no, theyContinue reading “And between dead and live how I came to live”

Garden song

“I did not want any flowers, I only wanted to lie with my head turned up and be utterly empty.” – Sylvia Plath I am the echo from the grave, the soul that speaks from under the worn soil and pale flowers – decorations of your love. I speak in rhythms of lonely tunes, theContinue reading “Garden song”

grandma redux

and so you’ve gone over there to pastures irish green the sweet scent of clover crowning your hair your frame upheld in clouds of pearl white the smooth out-flowing of sweet harp music greets your ever-giving heart you’ve gone i’ll try to keep this void inside me from swelling out of my veins i can’tContinue reading “grandma redux”

i am

i am therefore is god rene you sly old dog don’t you know can’t you see i am many things which are not white unicorns santa claus green eyed monsters peace on earth… i am- but where is god in my soul asleep forget about the children dying the gunfire never ending the empty belliesContinue reading “i am”

i don’t know where to go

i don’t know where to go i’d like to just sit peaceful like underneath some kind of tree and sleep but i don’t know where to go to get a peace of mind i’d like my mommy and daddy to hold me kind of tight in their wide sweeping arms but i don’t know whereContinue reading “i don’t know where to go”

Grandma

A good woman passed this way, sweet she was, as the apple- cinnamon aroma drifting towards my stomach; I was always filled with her. A good woman walked on by, kind she was, as rumors that never existed. She never broke my heart. A good woman lived once here – in this very spot whereContinue reading “Grandma”

anthem undone

lady-you are the pawn of great visions seen by empty eyes you shall be moved from square to square and be glad they have coated you in red you feel no more- the spur of mechanization i cry faintly for the freedom- let me out of this vacant hole i am much too young forContinue reading “anthem undone”

Tinker to Evers to Chance

Dawn is the rising star of my day and a ball of black fur shakes between my knees – ‘the end of the world is coming’ – crackerjacks light fires in the sky. And you had gotten away from the city running towards shaded trees and Coppertone. I laughed at my father the poet –Continue reading “Tinker to Evers to Chance”

Shapeshifters

They slip in and out- the words we use baked in a confection that cloys ah- how we understand and misconstrue- the life of a frog. He leaps past shadows worn grimly- the cloak of atrazine worn on our grandmothers’ scars leading to malformation and death. Unending, yes eternal this passage into darkness avoiding resonanceContinue reading “Shapeshifters”