Monday, September 19, 2011

Poetry #1 : Naomi Buck Palagi

Naomi Buck Palagi is a graduate of Oberlin College, currently working on a Masters of Liberal Studies at Indiana University Northwest, a full-time secretary, a wife, and a mother of two.  She has been published in journals such as Spoon River Review, Blue Fifth Review, Moria, and Wicked Alice.  She has two chapbooks, Silver Roof Tantrum, from Dancing Girl Press, and Darkness in the Tent, forthcoming through the Dusie Kollective #5

VI. the red blanket at one a.m.

I am an ant.  our
house is one of a thousand houses rats’ warren
of twisted gut-paved streets and stop signs, yield signs, I can’t
                                                 as an ant
even fathom how to get the hell out of here
to breathe

Lady Life/ Death/ Life I am Persephone down in the earth it is a time
to eat, to prepare, to fumble in the dark
                                                                   but.

             I am not an ant.                       
           
                   everything  

is not on the table and spiral focus on the red blanket to dizziness is actually
one
of many options
like the one in which
I am not an ant but
a wolf

I am not an ant.

I am lying on my bed like I did as a teenager and time
has slowed, to the motion of each
task completed, each rising of the sun,
rising of the moon, each gust of wind touching my never-hit face, my
walk-tall torso, my have-danced legs, it has slowed
to the satisfaction of a day and a foot
upon the path and the layers
upon layers of dirt, good dirt, earth dirt
which I have tasted
to my satisfaction and upon my back,
a pack, with a child, and at my side my hearts,
carried in these live bodies,
and time has slowed
to the amounting of a life.



Palindrome



paddledy-wack!  mo disna palindrome!
             an….                                                            MORPH!

                        ollywalladoollyalladay
                        alliday
                        alliday

ten thousand soldiers strong – alliday
                                                alliday

                                                piranha no ni nay
                                                                         there is oil!
                                                                         there is oil!
                               no more are the rich to toil, there is oil!

(auld lang wage)
bandana ban-dan-na ban-dan-na ban-dan-a dan-a

defeat the weak and eat the meek we never give a
damn!

            do re mi do fascist di do re no more can we stand
            still

            fa la la la la,   la la la la

            deck the hills the cotton mills the hardened wills
they get their thrills untils we


MORPH!
            disna palindrome for soldier/ stranger/ danger/
manger/

                                                evil/ live
                                               
                                                   and I

                                      no more to lie here dead
                                                   and gone
                                                    to go
                                                    go to
                                    cut down/  

rewop.

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