Poems

hit your gut strike your fancy make you inhale with recognition and smile secretly because you could have written it too

It’s the crow’s-feet around my eyes and the puffiness below them. It’s the furrows on my forehead and the wrinkles on my neck that make me place my hands upon my temples, pull back and say: “See, this is how I would look with a face-lift.” And a face ten years younger appears, but it’s MORE >

I must take care of this old woman the one with the bifocals and the hearing aid I must see to it that she takes her vitamins and the medicine for her heart I should take her for a walk everyday and get her to exercise help her make healthy food choices and get to MORE >

My grandfather’s grave is in Berlin having fled Russia and the communists his oldest son my mother’s brother not able to escape with the rest of the family is buried in Moscow my other grandfather and grandmother having been shot by German soldiers are in an unmarked grave somewhere in Lithuania my mother’s mother is MORE >

A friend saw my apartment and said “your place should be shared with someone” and I realized all of a sudden I don’t want anyone else here I am fine living alone and I realized all of a sudden that I am not lonely anymore I miss my husband but do not need anyone else MORE >

Hello! Room Service, please! I wish to order breakfast: Two poached eggs one underdone the other hard boiled with one strip of limp bacon burnt toast lukewarm coffee with soured milk canned orange juice slightly fermented half spilled on the tray and make me wait about an hour please … This is an unusual order MORE >

I want to write a book but don’t like the writing I want to eat gourmet food but don’t like the cooking I want to be slim but don’t like to diet I want to be athletic but don’t like to exercise I want to wake up early but don’t like getting up I want MORE >

My father has been gone for many years now. And yet when something special happens to me, I need to tell him about it. I talk to him secretly not really knowing whether he hears, but it makes me feel better to think so.

We used to “eat in” but now we “take out” It was “home cooked” now it’s “store bought” We had “hamburger” now it’s “tofu burger” We used to put “ketchup” on it now it’s “salsa” We never “deep fry” anything anymore now we “stir fry” it We have exchanged old-fashioned ice cream for low-fat frozen MORE >

I told my friend that my life has lost its meaning she said “Meaning is very overrated goals, purposes, projects and life’s missions are more relevant to the young; one spoils living in the moment by worrying about meaning” and so I gave myself permission to pay attention to the moment and enjoy it without MORE >