I wanted to speak
of inside cobwebs
lining all the curtains shut.
"Let's do lunch."
A way of tearing towel bars
from bathrooms
with their sewers clogged.
Hope pretends its plunger works.
I open your door, buckle you in
like bottoms in an infant's seat.
The restaurant is a fancy one.
Kind that brings the bill in wallets,
hidden from the common eye.

Linen white, but soiled diapers
of a world my ink and ache
can't understand.
You treat the waitress like a servant,
waiting for your mind to change.
The sky is blue;
you're staring in a yellow bowl
of pricey wine.
Fingers on the stem all day--
a hummingbird near
promised nectar of relief.

We had so much to talk about.
Your slipping health, your happiness,
all ornaments on dying tree.
It took an hour to bleach my clothes
with Clorox of syllabic hail.
I realize we never smiled.
I realize we never laughed.
Politesse was carrot curls
and parsley sprigs on boneless china.
Chatter was an empty pail
ringing its tin against my soul.

 

Janet Buck's poetry, poetics, and fiction have appeared in A Writer's Choice, The Melic Review, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Kimera, The Rose & Thorn, 2River View, Southern Ocean Review, Disquieting Muses, Urban Spaghetti, Perihelion, Mind Fire, Born Magazine, Poetry Life & Times, Born Magazine, Big Bridge, and hundreds of journals world-wide. Two of Buck's poems have been nominated for this year's Pushcart Prize in Poetry and she is a recent recipient of The H.G. Wells Award for Literary Excellence. In December 1999, Newton's Baby Press released her first print collection of poetry entitled Calamity's Quilt.

Janet was one of ten U.S. poets to be featured at the "One Heart, One World" Exhibit at the United Nations Exhibit Hall in New York City in April, 2000. Buck is currently on the editing and review panel for the up-coming book: Chicken Soup for the Volunteer's Soul. To read more of Janet's work or schedule a reading, go to: http://www.janetbuck.com

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