Saturnalia

the thing is, is that everything you've imagined

I have imagined. And if this sounds like a confessional, well

it is, sort of.

what I mean is that you can say I love you in 165 different languages

and it will still hold the candles at the festival; keep obligatory fist from flying.

I thought about Eliot this morning, that bored-out-of-his-mind Missourian

"setting the drug of dreams against the pain of living".

I was there for a moment, in the airport in Springfield buying expensive

half-submarine sandwiches and 8 once Pepsi's that cost 3 dollars, and why

not, I thought to myself. Why not sit down and write about that whole allegory of

stuff or make notes in the margins of margins? Yet not one word

of how to hold a unloved hand. Or what to say when your lover tares your shirt

pocket reaching for that last stick of Trident before that deep, ravenous kiss.

where your lower lip fades into theirs the way the pastor fades

all truth into biblical realism. Giving blood, they warned me,

was like drinking the sky in which the etherized patient laid: you rose

from the iron cot, an angelic nurse pulling the syringe out of an un-sick arm

and they guild you to a table of lonely ones where cookies and juice

await you.

Heaven, I swear it was.

Heaven by the looks of it.

Reviews

[Lydia Shutter]

We do know if the emotions are real....we know if the hand that holds ours is genuine. Dreams can be a drug, but as long as we know the difference between dreams and reality, what harm do they do? The image of a nurse sticking the needle into the unsick arm....wow! Your poetry is raw and honest and I enjoy it, Dana Lydi**

[h d e rushin]

thank you my dearest Lydia....I cant come by the café as often as I use to, but when I do come it is a joy to see that you are still here and still writing beautifully......dana

[Cyprian Van Dyke]

Well said. I could feel intense emotion when reading it.

"setting the drug of dreams against the pain of living". - Amazing line!

[h d e rushin]

thank you Cyprian Van Dyke for those kind remarks....dana

[Cyprian Van Dyke]

You're most welcome Dana!

[Ed Hart]

forged in the blast furnace of a surely kindly soul...and the phrasing, 'drug of dreams against the pain of living', 'margins of margins',..holding an unloved hand is like wearing handcuffs...you!

[h d e rushin]

thank you Ed....taking a small break from tending to my mother who dementia has
driven mad....her and me. It's Always good when you come over.....dana