….you have to become
the person you need to become
to write that book.
Junot Diaz
Listless in the cool light
of afternoon, a lizard scans
the crevices along our wall
waiting for me to fetch
part of myself that’s a blend
of fence and skink
clinging to language’s strata
and burrowing under each crack
to find the hatched syllables
of a word. Then another and another
until a sentence leaps into place.
And on a drainpipe, a raven bangs
for recognition. Shaken leaflets
fall off the mimosa clustering
along her slick plumage. The Pleiades
sunlit in green. It’s time for shedding
( as Winter’s sister crispens the air)
and the bird baits me
to invoke part of myself
that arrives with risk, daring
to roost in the macabre rafters
of imagination.
Its beams splintered
and veiled with the intricacy
of spiders, the breath of characters
I have yet to raise from the dead.
____________________________________
“Fence” and “skink” are two kinds of lizards;; one clings to stone walls./fences. the other burrows under garden foliage for protection and to look for food.
gwendrina posted: “….you have to become the person you need to become to write that book.
Junot Diaz
Listless in the cool light of afternoon,
a lizard scans the crevices along our wall
waiting for me to fetch
part of myself that’s a blend
of fence and skink”
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” The Pleiades
sunlit in green. It’s time for shedding”
Wendy,
All encompassing and such a mood setter. I love it!
You create tone so adeptly.
” a blend
of fence and skink”
and my fav:
“and the bird baits me
to invoke part of myself
that arrives with risk”
The above lines create a frisson of excitement,
a challenge.
The last stanza is the perfect wrap for this package.
So very much enjoyed!
Sarah
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A lovely read this rainy morning Wendy and I learned something new… ‘fence and skink’.
Regards,
Maryse
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Another lovely read from your pen, Wendy… I do like the mood of this poem, it fits the end of the Summer perfectly.
and I love those lines!!!
groetjes,
Francina
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Dear Maryse and Francina
Thank you so much for reading and commenting on this poem!! I deeply appreciate your interest in my work
and your thoughtfulness. Since I live in the high desert of Southern California, I have a raven and lizard close by. They really do serve as totems to my writing, at times and help put things in a certain perspective that is imaginative and persistent.
Again thankyou both so much!
Take care,
Wendy
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