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Preparation
The curve of a woman’s breast
as she bends, yoga, the golden light
of candles surround her, fragmented shadows,
her dry hands, feet, cracked
from the dry season of cold.
She bends and stretches out of habit,
out of a practice still imperfect
after twenty-five years.
She regularly forgets to lotion her hands
after clearing the birdbath of snow,
after adding warm water.
The sparrows love her. And so, too,
the juncos, the finches. She does not love them,
but their colors, their patterned wings.
She owns reasons for pulling her feet
over her head, for a limber posture—
something more than joy, than wellbeing.
The hawk at the top of the tree waits,
restrains the morning doves’ appearence,
ignores the small birds, their little voices.
A woman in candle light, fractured shadows,
bends, twists, almost unnaturally.
She works her molecules to recode her DNA:
remembers her primal escape from a long-ago sea,
initiates her dream of future flight.
Shade of Blue
Walking down the street,
long purse slung over shoulder,
Lisa sees the world in black
and white, especially the men
whose eyes suck the color
out of her clothes
in an effort to see her skin.
What a beating to be born lovely.
What a tool bravely unused.
The fleshgleam of her tanned shoulders
accentuates the white straps
of a thin cotton tank top, as her
long blond hair, tied back,
sways a little with the motion
of her body walking.
Something to stop their breath,
but not for too long, yet long enough
for a leer to suffocate the sky
into a deeper shade of blue.
Kenneth P. Gurney resides in Albuquerque, NM, USA. From 1995 ending in 2008 he edited the poetry
journals: Hodge Podge Poetry, Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry and Origami Condom. His poetry appears
regularly on the web or you can pop over to Amazon.com and purchase his book: Greeting Card and Other Poems.
Email: Kenneth P. Gurney
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