Tuesday, May 03, 2005

seeds...

Here is a prose poem. My friend inspired me to write one like this. (I was also inspired by flossing and strawberries.) The puncuation is probably messed up. And, I still need a title.
...

I flossed last night in front of the bathroom mirror so I could see all white and bright, and there were strawberry seeds from this past May lodged the crevices of my teeth that began to germinate, sprout little buds, and there was one leaf in between my molars that I pulled on slightly so as to not rip it, but it needed a little more action, so I pulled harder and found a whole vine from my molars all the way to my stomach because when I tugged in it, something tickled the dome of my stomach and it made me laugh, it was the fuzzy green stems of strawberry plants crawling up my esophagus from my stomach where the rest of the strawberry seeds settled and started a home, and I kept pulling and pulling like I was reaching for an apparent bucket in a stone well, while star flowers along the fuzzy vine popped from the black of my throat, and the vine was so long I lost patience so instead of snapping it off or yanking hard enough for it to break, because I thought that may hurt me some, I skittered into the kitchen for the scissors in the junk drawer, the same scissors I use to cut my bangs, and then I shuffled back into the bathroom trying not to go too fast or else my slippers would fall off and I would trip, meanwhile I was trying not to trip over the vines tracing the planks of the hallway’s hardwood floor. In the mirror, I opened my mouth as wide as I could and probed the pointed blades as far back as I could, snipped the vine, and I had to use force for it was like cutting a wooden pencil the kids use in school, I coughed from the naked end of the vine and its milks streaming out of it and I swallowed the vine quickly and felt it slither back home and twine around itself down there in my stomach, meanwhile my throat and my chest felt like I had eaten a whole can of hot popped Coke in a hurry and I could have belched and hiccupped back shiny, red berries with green feathered hats and little freckles that get stuck in my teeth and nestle in the soil of my stomach.

No comments: