Marj's poems

Was it Blake or it Donne who said, in a grain of sand, exists all eternity?

At the sink in this kitchen for countless years

I, too, see the pattern that runs through all

In a sliced circle of carrot or beet

In a seed pod or a fig, a cucumber, a Spanish onion

I find beauty in such wondrous things

Until the making of soup becomes a philosophic meditation on our small world

1986

A lady I know runs on happiness

One day, last autumn

I ran out of it

So I phoned her up

Left a message

"A, please send me half a kilogram of Happiness to last til thurs week.

Pay you later"

Marj 

1986

Soon will be the coming of dawn

But for now the night is still

Even the cricket is sleeping

It is the hour when lovers roll over and sigh and dream

yet some are busy: 

Rushing to the birthing centre

Tearing a calf from the cow 

Countless babes suck and smack at the breast til sleep comes for them 

But not for the exhausted mamas

86

The Smiths

Why wonder if they would ask you round?

If you asked them first 

And sat waiting for their call

You would be sitting at the phone stool

Till the next ice age

86 

The older hippies

What has become of the old hippies

Maybe they're in collar and tie

Doing flexi time 

A few remain on the soil

Their hats grease stained and beards bushier

Some. I know have had their first child 

And no longer dance 

With abandon

Very straight, very proper

In their suburban, three bedroomed, brick home

With a two car garage

Cousin

He said the bill was out of reason

For the phone last season

He rang up cousin Joan

For a chat 

She flowed on and on for forty mins 

saying nothing

But oozing and flowing like a  molten honey stream

Blah de blah de blah

Doo dah daaa daaa

He hung up and she went on

Blah de blah de blah

Mm, I said, I can't imagine why 

the bill would be sky high

86

Why is it that my clock is back the front?

Just turning on 

When I gotta get to bed

The shrink said it's the cicadian rhythms

You gotta get to bed by ten

But the day is gone

no time to even do the chores

And now I am just getting going

How can I get to bed by then?

 By ten?

86

Take a grip on yourself

Just go

Clean the teeth 

Lock the doors

Turn off the heat

Turn off the lights

Now git to bed!