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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Kelly likes Billy

I have a new crush.  His name is Billy.  I keep sneaking off for quick rendezvous in the afternoon when I'm supposedly working and slipping in just a few minutes with him just before bed.  



Did I mention he's a poet?

And just to be truthful, I've never met him, only his books, but I am infatuated with his stories.  So I thought, on this rather melancholy Tuesday that we were all in need of a spot of poetry, especially one to grin and snort over (which I do every time I read this particular one).  

The Country

I wondered about you
when you told me never to leave
a box of wooden, strike-anywhere matches
lying around the house because the mice

might get into them and start a fire.
But your face was absolutely straight
when you twisted the lid down on the round tin
where the matches, you said, are always stowed.

Who could sleep that night?
Who could whisk away the thought
of the one unlikely mouse
padding along a cold water pipe

behind the floral wallpaper
gripping a single wooden match 
between the needles of his teeth?
Who could not see him rounding a corner,

the blue tip scratching against a rough-hewn beam,
the sudden flare, and the creature
for one bright, shining moment
suddenly thrust ahead of his time - 

now a fire-starter, now a torchbearer
in a forgotten ritual, little brown druid
illuminating some ancient night
Who could fail to notice,

lit up in the blazing insulation,
the tiny looks of wonderment on the faces
of his fellow mice, onetime inhabitants
of what once was your house in the country?

8 comments:

candacemorris said...

tee hee.

i find great release in my worry when i see you lounging so.

i sometimes worry that you will not allow yourself to rest.

i will close my eyes and see you lying there with book in hand, feet subconsciously crossed...

breathing in peace.

jordan said...

i'm so glad you snort too. it's how people in my life gauge the hilarity of jokes (by how many snorts they get out of me) (although i laugh and snort very easily so a joke that's hilarious to me may not be so for everyone else...whatever, laughing easily makes life happier). so i loved this poem; read me more please!

The Noisy Plume said...

You must know that I love this outfit of yours. If only you weren't the size of an amazon queen we could swap closets from time to time!
XO

UmberDove said...

Mme. - I think we BOTH need our very mandatory resting time and breathing in peace. Let's try to actually claim it (although I will probably need you to hold me accountable to that statement).

Jordan - Jordan, I swear I am one huge snort, NOTHING is better than a huge belly laugh!

Plume - Maybe if you just wear really really big heels, we might have a dealio.

BC said...

A crush? What? I'll beat his ass!

BC said...

Oh and Plume - Maybe if you weren't one of those boring "average size" women...

emilyclare said...

"now a fire-starter, now a torchbearer/in a forgotten ritual, little brown druid/ illuminating some ancient night"

Thank you Dove... I enjoyed that immensely (the poem that is - though your outfit is SUPER too). I am having a poetry day today. I think I will exchange a little on my neck of the woods now.

she said...

hee hee!
i like that you read poetry.
i like your red picnic table skirt.
i like your SOCKS.

thanks for sharing, friend.