✏️
After Metastasis by Ja’net Danielo
She can’t remember and maybe that is why I keep rearranging my living room, thinking about where the floor lamp should go.
She can’t remember and this
is what I tell myself when I am frightened into thinking that I am forgetting what a floor lamp is.
Yesterday night I overheard a woman telling a boy to adopt a bunny and pretend to be one so that the bunny thinks he is also a bunny
and befriends him and makes him one of their own like the wild ones do with each other in the bushes
of thirteenth street. I want to know, when do bunnies stop being rabbits?
Across the street from the home my grandmother was put in, the night owl of eateries, the pine cone open until forever
and ever where I eat chicken dumpling alphabet soup
every weekend because my grandma doesn’t know how to make
it anymore. She can’t remember and the cold noodles in the warm broth repel each other like oil and water
and while I wait for my soup to settle I draw a picture of what the noodle-alphabet spells out today and think about
what it’s going to spell out inside my stomach later and I wonder if this is what my grandma meant when said that you must not add your noodles in too late before our 67th introduction
where she asks me my name again and we sit in each others company
talking about the weather over and over again.
Pine Cone is a truck stop and Rabbits are the same thing
as bunnies and my alphabet soup says that my floor lamp should probably go in the corner.
Sep 17, 2024
Related Recs
😃
I know a woman
who keeps buying puzzles
chinese
puzzles
blocks
wires
pieces that finally fit
into some order.
she works it out
mathematically
she solves all her
puzzles
lives down by the sea
puts sugar out for the ants
and believes
ultimately
in a better world.
her hair is white
she seldom combs it
her teeth are snaggled
and she wears loose shapeless
coveralls over a body most
women would wish they had.
for many years she irritated me
with what I consider her
eccentricities -
like soaking eggshells in water
(to feed the plants so that
they’d get calcium).
but finally when I think of her
life
and compare it to other lives
more dazzling, original
and beautiful
I realize that she has hurt fewer
people than anybody I know
(and by hurt I simply mean hurt).
she has had some terrible times,
times when maybe I should have
helped her more
for she is the mother of my only
child
and we were once great lovers,
but she has come through
like I said
she has hurt fewer people than
anybody I know,
and if you look at it like that,
well,
she has created a better world.
she has won.
Frances, this poem is for
you.
Jan 28, 2025
✏️
Behind your ears, boiling pasta and forgetting
about six minutes, letting it turn to glue. I remember
once you said, this tree is torn to shreds and we stood
and stripped it further. The night I looked at you terrified.
This was back when we belonged to no one,
when your hand found my rib in the dark. I played dumb
so as not to lose you. I watched you choose lovers,
watched as you changed on a whim when a man entered
the room. Laura, I want you embarrassed
by long dresses, by the fun of the carnival.
I remember the first time I convinced you to keep living.
It didn’t take much. I tricked you into walking to the place
on the corner with cheese danishes glazed thick
with sugar. We never got them. On the sidewalk a child
was playing in her plastic kitchen. She poured us imaginary
water, offered us mud soup. We put out our hands.
You took the mud almost to your mouth.
Feb 13, 2025
✏️
Behind your ears, boiling pasta and forgetting
about six minutes, letting it turn to glue. I remember
once you said, this tree is torn to shreds and we stood
and stripped it further. The night I looked at you terrified.
This was back when we belonged to no one,
when your hand found my rib in the dark. I played dumb
so as not to lose you. I watched you choose lovers,
watched as you changed on a whim when a man entered
the room. Laura, I want you embarrassed
by long dresses, by the fun of the carnival.
I remember the first time I convinced you to keep living.
It didn’t take much. I tricked you into walking to the place
on the corner with cheese danishes glazed thick
with sugar. We never got them. On the sidewalk a child
was playing in her plastic kitchen. She poured us imaginary
water, offered us mud soup. We put out our hands.
You took the mud almost to your mouth.
Feb 13, 2025
Top Recs from @glitterpoprocks
✏️
The light fixture, modern,
brightens the old cracks in our ceiling.
Popcorn walls, chipped , lead paint.
Our sink spits out our upstairs neighbor’s breakfast. Sometimes eggs but usually pancake mix.
Their water drips down on us through those
same cracks while we shower.
We have beets in the fridge from
far too long ago.
The stains look like blood and we’re only 20
with a stained fridge.
I could clean up the beets and we could have new beets.
We feed their cat that visits us while we hang
our sheets to dry.
We have ugly pillows on a nice couch.
It used to be my moms.
We have a wood table with rings, drawings
and signatures from when we were 5 -
because we don’t have coasters yet.
Maybe we’ll make a home here -
but I go outside instead, because
things are better out here
and there are no cracks above me.
Sep 17, 2024
⭐
I’m no scientist but this stuff is magical. Like those stars you can put on your ceiling.
Sep 22, 2024