Maryann Hazen


 

Figuratively

This poem's gonna get in your face.
I swear - it's gonna start with you.
This poem is potent.
It's gonna step up behind you
and show you
right where it's at.
Make you
lie down
and beg for more.
It will definitely
have
its way with you.
Shove you right back in your seat
and you'll want it
just like that.
You simply can't do without it;
and you know it.
You'll make excuses;
be driven, to see it,
more and more. This poem will
make it so very hard
to just say no, and mean it.
Your eyes will be compelled
to follow this poem
down and down,
bit by bit,
to
its final, trembling line
and just when you think it's over,
it'll reach up beneath you
and make you wish,
so very much,
for just a little
bit
more.

 

Lady Magazine

The magazine I bought yesterday at the
check-out counter told me: I need to have

a job and keep house, as well as
fight unsightly, suburban dandelions
in my lush lawn. I must be

slim as I raise my children and enjoy
sports as a single parent. It suggests that

I strive for intelligence, sensuality and
be able to fix my car with a cheerful
attitude and big breasts. It's best to be

skinny and have a sense of
humor while I manage my
budget with coupons. It claims that

women need to show sensitivity while
we defend our country and
file our taxes. I must maintain my

composure as I aerobicize (slenderly)
while being scented like
flowers and dryer sheets. It said I can have

clear, soft skin while I
drive heavy machinery in
my string bikini. If I exercise and eat

right, I can be healthfully trim as I
care for my grandparents, parents,
children, significant other,

myself and for just 35 cents a day,
an underprivileged child
on the other side of the globe.
For crying out loud.

 

Seeing Keisha See

Keisha says, every so often,
God sifts His angels down
upon earth's savage skin
like teary eyed stars.

She says their misty shadows
sparkle and glimmer
searching the surface
in a jumble of jubilation.

Keisha says when it's time,
(and it will be one day,
it must, you see) the angels
gather you close within
the depth and breadth
of their strong, open arms
and the light oh the light
fills your eyes and your mouth
and your face with a wondrous rapture
till it's all you can hold it's all you can hold
all you can hold you can hold you can hold
then you are there gone from here everywhere.

She says they help us
to begin the remembering,
for the living who are waiting,
.for the waiting to be done.