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Bus Ride Home at -30
The girl with the
incredibly smooth
white skin and the
bright blond hair
that seemed to be
iluminated from within
gnawed on a bagel filled
thick with white cream cheese.
Why would an angel be hungry?
The man behind her
soaked deep in the
culture of cities
jazz-talked to a tiny
nub on a chain around his neck
repeating, "I'm on my own ma man,"
several times, almost chanting.
These people sheltered with me
from the dark and the stupid
un-mentionable weather in the dull
grey light of the Number 47, which
means I would have to walk from the stop
as if I hadn't walked enough.
They come from a different
world. By the time they de-barked
from space-ship mother the earth
that protected me had vanished.
Tough are these young strivers,
passing through impossible
trials of consistency and pain.
The Homecoming of Cinderella
When Cinderella returned from the ball
and came back to ordinary life
it still fit like skin.
Even though disappointed
that nothing happened all at once
Cinderella knew the best
possible good time
and magic had been
in the air.
The castle was a stranger's house
and Cinderella didn't know the rules.
All the love and magic
could not make it clear.
The little things
invented to make
life bearable
still waited
And Cinderella always worried
that the magic would not follow,
that tomorrow it would be gone
all hope with it.
What did magic still intend?
Could one ill placed word
poison it?
In Front of the Love Dealer
Why am I
so worried about love
if I live in a village?
I can see
the same faces every day.
Even when they don't
talk to me,
the voices drone
public happiness.
When I can borrow love
or rent it, why
do I have to own it for myself?
A Glimpse
As we pass a dark window
my eyes acquire
a slim wrist sparkling with highlight
and long fingers
pointing downward like an arrow
over a hip.
Stolen from someone
who had been a human stranger,
once gathered and possessed,
the technicality of origin evaporates.
Figures of women
play through me
like movements in a symphony
they bring yearning like music,
recall an absence
that can't be filled.
Don Schaeffer established Enthalpy Press and has published 5 chap books
including Time Meat and The Word Cow and the Pig O' Love. ISBN series:
0-9687017 Recent poetry has been published in The Writers Publishing, Lilly
Lit, Burning Effigy Press, Understanding Magazine, "Melange, Tryst,
Quills, and others. His first book of poetry, Almost Full was published
by Owl Oak Press early in the summer of 2006. He holds a Ph.D. in Psychology
from City University of New York (1975) and lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba with
his wife, Joyce. He recently became the granfather of Hannah Zoe Sasaki
Schaeffer.
Email: Don Schaeffer
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