Untitled Document
kinquotepoem # 8
this being women’s history month
I give you a
quote from my eldest
at perhaps two and a half for the first
time
studying her own female mystery
she is naked bent over double
head
between legs what are you doing
I ask she replies looking at my
bottom
what does it look like I ask she replies
oh all broken in half a better poet than I
would now draw some philosophical
implications but I’ll
leave it at that
© Jacqueline Jackson 2007
What does the Museum of Funeral Customs have that the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum doesn’t — besides the
chocolate coffins in the gift shop? A poetry reading! The museum’s
sixth annual poetry reading starts at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 24. It’s an interesting little museum at the edge of
Oak Ridge Cemetery at 1440 Monument Ave. Personally, I think chocolate,
poetry, and cemeteries are some of the best things in life. Should be a
fabulous afternoon. Among the local poets presenting their work will be
Anita Stienstra; she’ll be reading “Ash Wednesday.”
— Carol Manley, guest editor.
Ash Wednesday
I placed you inconspicuously—
invisibly— inherently—
on my third eye like a palm vein printmarking sadly this my Wednesday.
The day you died my Love on Thursday felt eternal—ethereal—
enveloped— in thoughts of youmoments before your death, a sealed thing I can never open. Perhaps
Friday— replaces Friday—
days disappear turn into manyThursdays around Mondays—
and then more Mondays—
and months, and now it’s years.
It’s all incredibly—
inconceivably— inexplicably hard. I worry there in no dust to dust. I see all my Wednesdayswith your metaphoric ashes. I’ve well cleansed the remorseand now starve on mortality.
Local poet Anita Stienstra is best known as the
editor of Navigating the Maze, a literary annual that features work by high school
students.
Send submissions to Jacqueline Jackson Presents
People’s Poetry to poetry@illinoistimes.com or to Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256,
Springfield, IL 62705.
This article appears in Mar 15-21, 2007.
