in case you have forgotten
our smallness
remember this scale
if the sun
were as big as a football
the earth would be
a peppercorn
mercury
the head of a pin
& venus
just another peppercorn
with our
turning blue & white
fragment of spice
set about 26 yards
away from that soccer ball
how big
do you feel now?
she says she loves him, still
with her heart broken
because that space in her chest
shattered
& open
has room for so much more
than pain
the unfolding sweetness your kisses bring
deeply hidden, past where lips together
join and learn a language of sighs, feather
soft promises of pleasure murmured, rising
in heartbeats faster than the frantic wings
of a hummingbird rushing to nectar
before it loses brightness, turns bitter
in the throat of one shaped to sip and sing
i need to celebrate you in octaves,
exhale feeling lifted in major keys,
our pulse the tempo, and passion the beat
something in minor is far too plaintive,
and difficult to capture in trochees
the exact way your touch makes me spark heat
This is only my second sonnet, ever. Please be kind. Anyway, this is what we are doing over at the Dverse Pub today. Please join us if form does not give you fits.
some music we make our own
through hours of learning. i was there
for those first missed notes
on the baby grand & then later
by 12 years on the recycled upright
saved from the curb
that needed tuning & plastic glued
over missing ivories
when she made that simple
but spiraling rich point
& counterpoint hers
& then again hers
with all those flights
those flourishes
no longer simple
but spirit exhaled & tangled
in those notes
when she played
i cannot hear that piece
without seeing her play it
though her fingers
have not kissed those keys,
any keys
for 17 years
my revelation
shows everything hidden in
this tentative heart
september brings word problems
to a boy who counts on fingers
& I make up some
just to hear him laugh:
if we have 12 beans
and 3 carrots
are they equal to
an ear of corn
he says
carrots are yucky
& could never add up to corn
but carrots can be numbered up
on his fingers faster
because he won’t eat them
(& he has not gotten to subtraction yet
in those
word problems)
so now he knows
when there are groups of chickens
in fives
he can add them
to three squirrels
& I say
you can count pictures
in your mind
of anything you want
when just the numeral
is there
even candy?
yes, even candy
& no danger of subtraction
when the M&Ms
are imaginary
magic
is simply wanting
& letting yourself have
one small thing
the trick of it
is learning exactly when
to open your hands
to catch it
before it falls
& breaks
Susan Daniels Poetry 