Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

Posted on September 29, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

Oh, my.  My friend and blogger extraordinaire , Mimi from Waiting for the karma Truck has nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award.  Now, I have decided not to do the awards thing any more, or at least do it in my own way, but I just can’t say no to Mimi, because she is wonderful….so thanking her for thinking of me.  Besides, the image is gorgeous–see?

So–I am accepting this one, because it is gorgeous and from Mimi–and I love that she thought of me!

My nomination(s) for this award are ALL of my wonderful lady-blogger friends out there–you are all fantastic and I am proud to be part of such a wonderful community of women!  Please copy this award if you want it.  Feel free to pass it on to the other wonderful female bloggers out there, too!  We’ll have to appreciate our brother bloggers some other way…

Posted in awards | Tagged , | 27 Comments

eavesdropping half of a conversation

Posted on September 29, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

corcovado, bossa
is too bright & fast
for this coffee line
but the piano joys in slides
& chopped chords
tickling ears
like peacock feathers
i want to shrink away from–
beautiful but annoying
coffee & chocolate beige the air
so i taste mocha already
2 people between me & the barista

the music shifts to so what
a little softer, so i hear the man
in front of me, turned sideways
sigh into the cell phone
no promises
rolling the eye i can see
& shrugging shoulders
under a new sport coat
on a saturday & i wonder

what he’s not promising
someone not here
to see the shrugging & rolling
or the tightness around his lips
important cues
for the other side of conversation
i am keeping time to
instead of that jazz
mixed with steamed milk hiss
& coffee scents

 

**we are people watching over at Dverse today.

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , , , | 50 Comments

Posted on September 29, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

George has scribed live passion here–I love this.

Posted in New Free Verse | 5 Comments

veterans park, 1984

Posted on September 29, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

1984 was the year we wore yellow eyeshadow
& found punk, hummed along to disgust
muttered tuneless by skeletal men we called artists
who exhaled heroin bitterness instead of lyrics
& rasped desperation that set our teeth on edge

it was summer & we were 17,
so we took our sandals off to step barefoot
on that nihilism, or was it just dancing on dried grass
with 2 boys from SUNYAB
we called men then, but barely past acne
with hands & feet too large for their bodies still
like overgrown puppies & matching them in eagerness

they chased down an ice cream van for us
where pot smoke poured from the slide window
yes, mister softee was getting stoned
in between shaping sundaes & twisted custard cones
for the concert crowd
& we laughed with knowing giddiness
or a contact from what we breathed
thicker than milkshakes,
chanting our new mantra to synthetic drums:
mister softee’s getting stoned

smoke & ice cream colors merging
& melting into muddled rainbows

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , | 25 Comments

life in 40-dollar increments

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

i never saw life as strung cigarette to cigarette
& maybe that’s why those small escapes are legal
but deadly.  you smell money in a room
the way a shark tastes bait blood
in water, small eyes hunting the source
you would kill for as easily

craving that 40-dollar installment
that won’t fix anything but pause
for a while, in that taste you call controlling it
while the habit rides you in shudder & sweat

but the shark is innocent in his hunger.
what you want can never fill you
really.  it just makes you more empty

Posted in addiction, New Free Verse | Tagged | 14 Comments

braid battlefield

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

no cornrows with beads
for her & no threaded hair
but the long coiled twists

those twists are rasta
fingercombed to sleek ripples–
war over, we twist

Posted in haiku, haiku chain | Tagged , , | 22 Comments

mommy genes

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Susan L Daniels

these are not the skinny jeans
folded on top of the closet shelf
i think i am somehow going to wear again
& they’re not the mom jeans
roomy enough at the hips

no. these are the genes
that supposedly make little girls
want to play dolls, or house.

i played dolls with my sister.
her charlies angel doll was marrying grizzly adams
for the 20th time when I said to her
out of nowhere–do you want to get married

her of course made me snicker

not me, i’m just gonna have
lots of boyfriends

i never craved babies like chocolate.
i never sighed with that force of yearning.
the mommy gene never fit
but the love, the love happened
the second i saw her flickering there
on the ultrasound

the reason for the missed period
& the ensuing chaos of choice
somersaulting on the screen

i may have never wanted children
theoretically, but her,
her dancing there, an inch under my navel
& innocent of location–
her i wanted

mommy genes were never tangled
in my DNA.  the mom thing
was not born with me

but chosen

Posted in New Free Verse | Tagged , | 30 Comments