Strangles

When i

was small

and Audra Barkley of

"The Big Valley"

would walk down those

tall, reddish stairs

in her coffle of explicit

polish-porn blondness

and her crinoline petticoat

effloresce

i

took my little fingers

and pinched the rubber bands

on my braids

until

pedals played music

in the room

we named "kitchen"

with the funeral

folding chairs

and

the hot stove propped up

on the Britannica Encyclopedia set

my dad saved for two

years to buy

for us.

Not to worry. They were the last two

volumes and nothing flexible,

softcover, scripture;

nothing windblown, lima bean or mouse dropping strewn

ever took 30 thousand pages

to teach me.

Reviews

[barleygirl]

WOW! This is the most focused ramble I've seen of yours & it's very powerful. This is the ultimate in SHOW instead of tell. I love the unique, telling details you pick out from everyday life, but distinct details that define a particular life, not just general details. That stove on books is killer . . . that's the way an excellent writer shows a vast scene from this type of life, but without hardly saying anything, just a focused, perfectly-selected detail like that can take the place of so much word paint slopped around (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[h d e rushin]

thank you Margie.....I truly appreciate your kind remarks...dana

[R.E. Ray]

Dana, I admire how you contrasted the fiction of "The Big Valley" with factual reality of those encyclopedias, and of course, that hot stove. Seems history dripped on history in your home, and you took more than Audra Barkley from your childhood. Such original descriptions and images in this work. Deep thoughts and lessons in this poem.

[h d e rushin]

thank you R.E. for a review that had gotten lost in the ether of architectural ornamentation. dana

[Robert Trakofler]

I got to say I always thought Audra Barkley looked like a plastic doll even as a kid i thought she couldn't give an authentic expression if her life depended on it. If she knocked on the door and offered me the grand prize from publishers clearing house I would probably still have serious doubts. Lesson learned and probably more so... earned! In the grand uneven playing fields of your dreams was an essential leveler you already had in those twirling fingers of yours.... That exquisite MIND of yours! it could prop up a volcano:) the glimpses of you on your palimpsests renderings pon you Britannica give me electric spark new understandings to the word grace

[h d e rushin]

thank you my dearest Bad. I got a flu shot today and it knocked me completely on my a*s. Been out of it for a few hours...dana

[jacob erin-cilberto]

we had World Book...and i spent so much time looking at those when i was really young...i tried to make sense of what was in there.
no mouse droppings either.
and wow...Audra...my freshman year at SIU....we all watched the reruns of Big Valley, many of us...and everyone shouted at the screen whenever Audra showed up...came down those stairs...we all loved her.
really like the "funeral folding chairs" great image there.
as usual...thoughtful poetry is all that comes from your pen, dana,
j.

[h d e rushin]

thank you brother....so much of life now is memory..And as I mention , I got a flu shot today and am having a bad reaction to it.I encourage everyone over 60 to get one just to be safe. And your right, I had a huge crush on Audra since she was perfect in an imperfect world....dana

[Beccy]

In this world of ours, there is as much that cannot be taught, as can be. Paul Simon wrote that some go through life talking without speaking, hearing without listening. A blinkered state, if you like, that accepts and understands nothing but the immediacy of their own enclosed little world; and in doing so, miss so much more.

But equally, there are others who can follow the flight of the honey bee, who can imagine the very heavens, touch their fingers on the pulsing heart of this beautiful planet; and it those, the latter, who have no need of those thirty thousand tattered pages you so lovingly refer to.

A wonderful, wonderful poem, that allowed me to hear the music in the room you called 'kitchen.'

Beccy.

[h d e rushin]

my, my! such wonderful remarks my friend..thank you so very much....dana