My friend Gretchen VanOstrand is a wonderful poet and I am delighted to share some of her work. Her work has appeared in Requiem magazine, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, andPoetry Superhighway, among other places. Among her favorite writers are poets E.E. Cummings, Robert Frost, Maya Angelou and author David Sedaris. She was born in Connecticut, grew up in Maryland but is now living in Tennessee with her husband and cats.
photo by Elizabeth Harper
July 30, 2013
The summer sun's heat
has left July
for brown November
and now
memories fade like
trees now skeletal
dying to the winter
Life once bursting
on a warm July morning
etched in green grass
and hot bricks
and last breaths, but
Seasons change
Stop!
let me go back
because the sparkling frost
covers the yard
and now
your last stop on Earth
is frozen
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Mrs. Beyer
“Lily of the Valley!”
Joe calls her
it’s her name now
Lily
a new name for a new person
He comes once a week
to chop her hair short
in a mannish do
not befitting
Lillian in the picture frame
hair piled up
red nails
bright blue eyes
beaming, this crazy old lady
in a cowboy hat
red plaid skirt
and boots of course
beltin’ out the karaoke
new hair new name
because Lily doesn’t sing
songs she can’t remember anyway
words forgotten
as Lillian is
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Bombed Prayer
dripping through pressed hands
tears moisten my bent knees
outrage contained, pent up
fury held up, prayed up
one final time
why do these questions leave my mouth yet answers
never return to my addled head
little old ladies in fine dress and jean wearing hipster
jesus freaks
(coffee shop and praise band types)
don't quench that thirst for knowledge
don't ask that question again about suffering
just have faith we're all sinners (we've fallen short)
street people schizophrenic all believers (crazies) talking to god
propaganda prayer and insanity all sound the same to me
I'm not going to bother to thank him
bloody legs and dead mutilated children are all I see today
and millions of people find a reason to keep lying
I don't believe it.