Before I Speak

I have spilled
words onto the page
like sugar granules or
high fructose corn syrup
just because I could

but now
is the hour to be silent.

Very soon
I will speak words
like rain
in torrents
life in a parched throat
each drop sweet and
wholesome and
crystal, crystal clear

but now
is the hour to be silent
to let moisture gather
on my dust
before I speak.

now be silent / gather dust / speak.

Flagellated Protozoans

I found this today: a poem I wrote back at university while angsting over what I was supposed to be doing for my creative writing class. As it's fairly indicative of my current capacity for intellectuality, I thought it as good a way to break radio silence as any... O:)

*anti-brain-breakage cookies* for you all. Also, Pajenka's was a cafe at the university ;)


‘Flagellated protozoan’
Is the best rhyme I can find
For ‘trying to write a poem’
How amusing

‘Flagellated protozoan’
Seems to mean ‘a little creature
That is never found in poem’ –
How confusing

And it isn’t really rhyming
And the rhythm is all out
A stupendous lack of timing
Shows throughout it

And the harder that I ponder
And the longer that I try
The worse the poem wanders
All about

And I sit here in Pajenka’s
Where the mob is raising hell
Trying to write a terzanelle
But it’s not working

I try to reach inside – I
Hear the caterpillar tread
Of an inkling in my head
But it goes nowhere

So I’m stuck here with a poem
About whip-like protozoans
And I think that I’m not meant
To be a poet

So I’ll put away thesauri
And I’ll go back to my lab
And I’ll play with
protozoans: flagellated.

The end.