macaronic

mac·a·ron·ic   [mak-uh-ron-ik], adjective
1. composed of a mixture of languages.

2. mixed; jumbled.

Moronic, 

The Tower of Babel falls

With everyone in it. There seems to be

One loud, discernible scream

Meaning fear, meaning death,

Meaning empty-headed jealousy.

Who can die more enviably?

Most delicately? Who will dive?

Whose body, whose bones

Will land expressively

So that all of Man and not only 

God will understand?

tony

tony \ TOH-nee \, adjective;

High-toned; stylish.

The dresses in my closet wait,

Strung, suspended on the pole
Like pearls on a string that sags

In the middle like my body

Is beginning to - like women always
Warn, always warned. I've become
Someone that says, "Almost 30,"
Sad and dull-ly, as redundant

As the woodpecker that digs its
Beak into the tree - something
Like my head against the table
Of those words. I once had a dress
With a watermelon on its chest

That grew with me every year
Seemed a wondrous trick to a child

Now I look at these resting

Silent on hangers and hope

My body squeezes into them.

If they don't, I'll blame the dryer,

The cheap fabric until I have to

Face the truth - how much my rump

Now mimics the waxing moon.

caparison

caparison \ kuh-PAR-uh-suhn \, verb;
To dress richly; deck.


I didn't know it was supposed
To rain today. First the air dims.
Then clouds appear. It happens
That way. I watch the people
On the streets in trenchcoats.
Me, in cotton. A pink dress
That will turn red, first, in
Blossoms, one or two, then an
Orchard. Where I punched you
Out of a cardboard box. You
Stood for a moment, then fell.
I watched you, float down the river
Without shoes, without a boat.
You didn't even yell. Maybe
I will see you at the rainbow
Where it ends. I'll be the one
With my feet stuck in the ground.

cumshaw

cumshaw\ KUHM-shaw \ , noun;

A present; gratuity; tip.

Cumshaw, rickshaw, buzz saw,
Clapped jaw, hem and haw.
"Aw, aw" does the bird call.

apotropaic

apotropaic \ap-uh-truh-PEY-ik\, adjective:
Intended to ward off evil.

Didn't really think the night
Hid so many monsters or that light
Could ward off evil but still
I ran up the stairs from the pool
In the basement without bottom
And I flicked on all the switches
In each room I passed through.
Even now, sitting alone in the car
With no headlights, no locks on,
I fumble with the ignition and imagine

A cold wind coming in before the hord

Hits, ripping and tearing at my skin.

Listen. Did you hear the crickets

And the bullfrogs go silent?

pleach

pleach \ pleech \, verb;
1. To interweave branches or vines for a hedge or arbor.
2. To braid (hair).


The afternoon you tried to tame my curly hair,
It was sunny, a Saturday. You sat me down
In the kitchen, on a wooden stool, between
Your blue-jeaned legs. You took a comb, then,
A round brush, pulled at my roots, my head arched
Back, my chin pointed up. You asked me to please
Sit still, so I gripped the seat, bit my lips together
As your un-tender fingers and the beaded bristles
Tore through my hair with each stroke. Half an hour,
An hour, again and again you tried, but my hair
Would not weave, would not work into the french
Braid you scraped for so diligently, my scalp ached.

agley

agley\ uh-GLEE \  , adjective;Off the right line; awry; wrong.

A family of clothes aligned on the line

From smallest to biggest article, pinned

Dresses billow like jellyfish, no spines,

While pant legs bend at the knees, kicked in

By the wind, which is brittle, sour-smelling
Like rain. The air, pregnant, like a woman

Heavy with child, the drying clothes hang

Between hips, old wooden poles that bow in

Tempered by fifty years' weight of this.

The old woman feels the rain in her own bones

Sits at the window, massaging her wrists,

She will go, take down the clothes, alone

As always, as is constant, as is right,

Cry the clothes, flapping on the line like kites.