Moose and Squirrel
One burden of childhood is time,
hour stacked upon hour
a wall of bricks stretching
into an endless forever.
You learn this first at school
through the torture of the hands
of the clock that will not move,
no matter how hard you stare.
Eternity is cruel when you’re always waiting
under your desk, like my mother was
paralyzed by the siren, the inevitable
extinction, that blinds, then burns, leaving
your shadow an immortal chalk drawing
as what you were emptied from the room,
a spilled cup that no longer has to stand
amidst the devastation, under the nun’s waiting
ruler to spell that final word.
For me, oblivion was as far away as the dinosaurs.
We still counted missiles in our icy war
our gun was bigger, or it wasn’t.
It became a game of spies at recess. After-
school we would sit eye-damagingly close
to a black and white
television, its ears stretching
like the rabbit, our fool magician hero could never
seem to pull from the hat between his antlers.
He would tear away his sleeve, and reach down.
Instead of a bunny, he would reveal a savage beast.
This is the second burden of childhood.
~~
Words used: blinds, bunny, burden, burns, cruel, devastation, emptied, extinction, eternity, fool, forever, icy, immortal, oblivion, paralyzed, savage, torture
One burden of childhood is time,
hour stacked upon hour
a wall of bricks stretching
into an endless forever.
You learn this first at school
through the torture of the hands
of the clock that will not move,
no matter how hard you stare.
Eternity is cruel when you’re always waiting
under your desk, like my mother was
paralyzed by the siren, the inevitable
extinction, that blinds, then burns, leaving
your shadow an immortal chalk drawing
as what you were emptied from the room,
a spilled cup that no longer has to stand
amidst the devastation, under the nun’s waiting
ruler to spell that final word.
For me, oblivion was as far away as the dinosaurs.
We still counted missiles in our icy war
our gun was bigger, or it wasn’t.
It became a game of spies at recess. After-
school we would sit eye-damagingly close
to a black and white
television, its ears stretching
like the rabbit, our fool magician hero could never
seem to pull from the hat between his antlers.
He would tear away his sleeve, and reach down.
Instead of a bunny, he would reveal a savage beast.
This is the second burden of childhood.
~~
Words used: blinds, bunny, burden, burns, cruel, devastation, emptied, extinction, eternity, fool, forever, icy, immortal, oblivion, paralyzed, savage, torture
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson