Sunday, July 10, 2011

The 3 Rs, revise, revise, revise

As much as I had hoped weekdays would provide time for revisions, with student teaching and school, the time just isn't there.

If only I had a Tardis.

No going back in your own timeline, though. On second thought, that may not work.

Hopefully this is a bit tighter than it's previous rendition. I think it still needs some work, but we're going to start here.


Origins


I am drinking green tea from China,

bought from a Polish bulk foods store,

seasoned with cinnamon from an Indian grocer,

sweetened with Michigan honey.

I scribble with a Holiday Inn pen

from a stay in Spring Lake, Michigan,

but made in Taiwan.


I am from Grosse Pointe

and Detroit, Michigan,

but also Terre Haute, Indiana.

Not the city, but the scruff along

the edges. The dust and the single

room shanties. Ford trucks and

Larry Bird paraphernalia and


too dry summers that make

the rows of corn weep.

The stalks sag from the sun,

shiver in the wind.


I am not from the city,

or the country, but somewhere

nestled in between


where the dialects of each generation

melt to form the language

farm to city to suburb

zink, sink

sal-ary, celery

drawel, pause

nasal vowels

forgotten consonants

voices in harmony, but also

timeless, placeless cacophony.

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