Sunday, July 1, 2018

JUST YESTERDAY I WAS THINKING IT WOULD BE NICE TO WRITE A POEM. by Vincet Zepp




my sister called

she blacked out
when
she came to

there was a knife

with
blood
on it

two years ago
she was pulled over
for

allegedly

driving
erratically

driving too slow

they
blood tested her

and found
morphine
prescribed
by her doctor

she failed
to appear in court

shes had

a botched spine fusion
two hip replacements

is in a wheelchair

things like court dates
kinda got put on the back burner



the doctor who prescribed
wont call back

her public defender
wont call back

the sheriffs came yesterday
to tell
her
to apeear in court

on monday
or else

they’d come and get her

no car
no money

i tried to
calm her down

telling her

they
wont throw

a granny in
a wheelchair

in jail

as long as you dont call
the judge

a motherfucker

as
she is wont to do

i told her to forget about the bloody
knife

there was no dead body
in her trailer



i told her
to call me monday
after

she sees the judge

from home
or the
hoosegow

instead she called tuesday at 2 am

my mother
was manic depressive
she’d take
the butcher knife
from
the wall

and

lock herself
in the
bathroom

when she came out

the knife was never
bloody

and no one was ever laying
dead on the floor

i think
things will
be ok

my sister
is an

outlaw

so
who can say







Arriving at the time in history (including literary history) when I did. I was blessed to have such a rich tradition of poetry, art, music, and culture available to me.  This continues to allow my poetry to flourish in a rich loam of influences.  The work I believe is representative of the best thoughts and intuitions of my generation of writers whose challenge is to move forward with the gifts given to us from previous generation of artists. From Ferlinghetti who opened my eyes to Pound and Eliot through the various significant literary and art movements of the 20th century.  Then there was the haiku master Basho who showed us frogs leaping into the pond of our mind. John Berryman said our poetry should be something no one else could do.  I've tried to focus on that idea.

1 comment:

  1. I agree she probably shouldn't call the judge a mother fucker cos it seems these days anything can happen to anyone. Tiny children can be jailed at a whim. So...take care and my regards to your sister. At least she has a good poem here ...

    ReplyDelete

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