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

The Only Fact

A death is a fact.

It is the only fact.

Many deaths is a question.

It is the only question.

 

A number is a fact.

It records. It answers.

Many numbers is a lie.

They manipulate. They distort.

 

A child is a fact

her future before her.

A child’s death

sears a hole in the future.

 

A void.

 

We are all children before the void

when tomorrow is the land of the lucky few. 

 

12-12-2020

Soon

I could have

brought my music to your room

when I came to help with chores each week.

I would bring my fiddle soon

I thought

after I’d learned some more.

I would have brought my music

to the hospital

but it seemed awkward to jar the silence

with such joy.

Anyway, you would be home soon.

I should have dared to be heard

to know your delighted eyes

just to see that I tried.

Small comfort to improve now.

Now I look up from my song and think

hey Mom, listen to this,

and for a while I imagine

that somehow you can.

©2015 Donna Jo Wallace.