Poem #2
Here is my latest work, actually still in progress, as I'm not entirely satisfied with my wording and stanza order. Icons will be available soon, I hope by the end of the month. I'm working on a series with Viggo in Gold.
daddy's grammar lesson
i. (present)
she spends his tainted money
earned by wart ridden hands.
spends his fickle money
on a seventeen-inch
Apple Powerbook
a university education
two London Fog jackets
and a visit to Morocco.
ii. (future)
she will watch
his brittle yellowed hands
turn into slivers,
spread his crumbling hands
over pecan pie,
sip sugared ice tea,
and smile.
iii. (imperfect)
she has seen his hands
scrimp scrounge save
stuff smash suffer
for money
money squandered
while his words carved her heart.
iv. (future perfect)
she will have wondered
why her mother had not left
when his first employer
disengaged his murderous hands
when his second employer
disapproved of his vengeful hands
and his third
and fourth
and fifth-
she will have realized her mother’s sacrifice
for a man’s hands with whom
the world disagreed.
v. (subjunctive present)
she would that he speak
than allow clawing scratching
stinging hands a word
vi. (present perfect)
she watched her hands
adhered to the wheel
and thought
of Sundays at four
sitting in the backseat
riding high low around curves
up a mountain beside a creek
his hands everywhere but
the wheel and concluded:
it was a miracle she wasn’t dead.
vii. (conditional past)
she would have walked away
if the roads didn’t circle back around
if it wasn’t three in the morning
if his Baha wasn’t in the driveway
if his hands hadn’t molded her limbs to shreds
viii. (pluperfect)
she had seen her arms
stripped, striped
white, red, lavender, navy, brown
she had collected
liquor bottles for their shape
thick glass, curved, glimmering
twenty-three bottles, twenty-four stripes.
ix. (subjunctive past)
she would that he spoke
than stomped clenched stroked stuffed coddled
she would that he spoke
x. (imperative present)
take these tattooed hands
carve them, twist them
snap their dirty white bones
scatter decomposing flesh
over an oil bath
watch
bone to ash
ash to dust
xi. (conditional present)
she would forgive those hands
(for buying affection
with the latest technology
glistening under racing fingertips
for buying affection
with haute couture
silk fabric slipping softly
for buying affection
at arm’s length)
if there was anything left to forgive.
daddy's grammar lesson
i. (present)
she spends his tainted money
earned by wart ridden hands.
spends his fickle money
on a seventeen-inch
Apple Powerbook
a university education
two London Fog jackets
and a visit to Morocco.
ii. (future)
she will watch
his brittle yellowed hands
turn into slivers,
spread his crumbling hands
over pecan pie,
sip sugared ice tea,
and smile.
iii. (imperfect)
she has seen his hands
scrimp scrounge save
stuff smash suffer
for money
money squandered
while his words carved her heart.
iv. (future perfect)
she will have wondered
why her mother had not left
when his first employer
disengaged his murderous hands
when his second employer
disapproved of his vengeful hands
and his third
and fourth
and fifth-
she will have realized her mother’s sacrifice
for a man’s hands with whom
the world disagreed.
v. (subjunctive present)
she would that he speak
than allow clawing scratching
stinging hands a word
vi. (present perfect)
she watched her hands
adhered to the wheel
and thought
of Sundays at four
sitting in the backseat
riding high low around curves
up a mountain beside a creek
his hands everywhere but
the wheel and concluded:
it was a miracle she wasn’t dead.
vii. (conditional past)
she would have walked away
if the roads didn’t circle back around
if it wasn’t three in the morning
if his Baha wasn’t in the driveway
if his hands hadn’t molded her limbs to shreds
viii. (pluperfect)
she had seen her arms
stripped, striped
white, red, lavender, navy, brown
she had collected
liquor bottles for their shape
thick glass, curved, glimmering
twenty-three bottles, twenty-four stripes.
ix. (subjunctive past)
she would that he spoke
than stomped clenched stroked stuffed coddled
she would that he spoke
x. (imperative present)
take these tattooed hands
carve them, twist them
snap their dirty white bones
scatter decomposing flesh
over an oil bath
watch
bone to ash
ash to dust
xi. (conditional present)
she would forgive those hands
(for buying affection
with the latest technology
glistening under racing fingertips
for buying affection
with haute couture
silk fabric slipping softly
for buying affection
at arm’s length)
if there was anything left to forgive.