The Blizzard
I have got to wake up
And I have got to get dressed, with eyeshadow
With the intent of wings of a butterfly – my face, can it be beautiful
A little while longer – while this aging body has not yet turned on me
I need a face to match this body
To feel good about myself
Can I at least appear to be good
I must wake up, and with four cups of coffee
Searching the world through the internet
For one good poem
Something to inspire me this one day
Can someone out there
Write a poem without a cliche at the end of it,
Please
I must wake up to each day with my thoughts of what is outside
In winter
The heat of Texas
Until there is a blizzard and I run out to see the snow and fall and injure my ankle so badly
I can’t walk
While the city is under feet of snow
No water
No electricity
I find a rolling stool to scoot across the floor of my house for a week
In this condition
The blizzard, the purple ankle swollen the size of softball
Isolated
Freezing
I watch the birds that keep coming to my window
I manage to hobble outside once a day to fill the bird feeder
These birds expect 70 degree days in Texas – or at the very least 40 degrees, but
Here we are 0 degrees, then 10, and finally after a week – 32 degrees
The birds always at my window.
I must wake up every day
And be ready for such a blizzard again
Even if it is only in my mind –
Even if I become frozen, which I do,
For example, recently, I fell in love for one month and one day
With a beautiful person, a man, who beats my heart – like a pounding at my door,
BEAT BEAT BEAT BEAT.
He could be anything – a poet, a listener, an historian, a movie watcher, a lover, a Christian, a Buddhist,
But I can’t be
I can only be frozen
I found out after one month and one day.
I need to look at the palette of beautiful eye shadows
These are my choices, this is what I can do:
Go to the food store – I need to walk into the store, and I will,
Walk to the bananas and admire how they look – the yellows, and the greens, and the dark greens,
The sizes – the very large, to the unbelievably small ones –
And I will carefully choose one bunch of
Five green bananas.
I will admire all of the tomatoes as well, and the onions, and the pineapples.
I will buy crackers, tea, and coffee.
I will drive home.
I will look back out over the street on which I live,
Where there is no one around,
But there are several cats, and they all have names.
I will hear the birds, look for them high in the trees, and wonder why I can’t see them.
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