Weight

The reason

_we have lost track_

to run a lean life muscular slim

is that when it is time to move on

you don't need it all that girth

the weight the accumulation holding you down

because you will always have to move on

again

 

It has little to do with what you thought it did

attracting other insecure people with your absence of flesh

playing the game, of being not-you.

It has something to do with you though the actual you:

 

who would you be without the stuff

the flesh, the power you deny, all the busy

that keeps you afloat free from thinking,

That holding on is keeping you from moving on

from learning painful learning

 

Do you ever ask

 

04.15.2025

Meander

There is power in meandering

winding wondering

to the center of the soul

where the monsters live.

We cling, instead, to strong straight paths

with measured steps and certain destinations,

where we suppose the thing called safety

waits for us.

But

Isn’t it in the dreaming of days,

the spinning of tales,

the tracing of

paths

of

rain

drops

down

                        long    

window

panes

that

create

some

thi

n

g

n

e

w

where we learn

what we have always known

©2007 Donna Jo Wallace.

Wings

I watched a bird wobble across the road.

Right in front of my car, grave danger.

It saw the beast with the headlights and ran, ran faster.

Could not find its wings to save itself.

I wonder about my wings.

Do I suffer only because I cannot find them?

When I see the car coming

do I only run faster and faster

Instead of flying

escaping

Far above it all?

©2011 Donna Jo Wallace.

It Is a Gift

There is change in the air.

I have wallowed too long in

the land of what if, indulging in

fear of fear, clay feet

that mire the mind;

But today I feel good for no particular reason

ready to forget what I’ve learned

since what I learned was not to trust most people

or myself, that much.

Today I reveal my inner teenager,

the one who doesn’t know she can’t;

who believes that if she can think it,

she can do it, just maybe . . .

It isn’t anything special, this feeling,

just a lightening of the spirit

a chance to wonder if . . .

I wonder where it came from

but it doesn’t really matter

It is a gift, just for today.

©2008 Donna Jo Wallace.

Slow the Mind

Today

I live at the speed of evaporation.

I listen to snowflakes land.

I breathe in and out.

Today

I say only what I mean to say,

and focus my mind

on the very next thing.

I will not wish

or worry

or sleep my day away.

Today I will wonder

and listen

and play.

©2008 Donna Jo Wallace.

Rhymes With Orange

The humble orange holds no fear for me

Merely for lack of a rhyme.

I hold its juicy roundness joyfully

Plump and expectant in the hollow of my hand

Remembering

how I ate one faithfully each day

when I was expecting my own

I would dig in fearlessly - such a short lunch break

yet there was always time.

Others gave up smoking, drinking, or did baby yoga.

Having not much to give up, I ate an orange.

Every day, not for me

so much as for the small one Growing

expecting me already to do my best for her

Even if I didn’t always know what was best for me.

So bravely

I tell you about the orange

Even though I am a poet

In my own little free verse world

Knowing that it doesn’t rhyme and it’s okay.

_________________

©2011 Donna Jo Wallace.