When Merric learned that I am into fairy tales, she asked which ones—and when I told her (the girl going into the woods ones) she said, “Grimms!” Then she told me she wandered after high school to the part of Germany where the Brothers Grimm grew up.
The Stranger: Merric
The Word: Wander
The poem I wrote:
I was afraid to wander
so instead I learned.
I learned answers
using language, math, myth.
The wandering came later
and it sent me back,
waterproof, to the sea,
braver now, with questions.
The Challenge: Do you have a poem in you on this word? Write one here.
December 2, 2018 at 10:41 pm
Shall We Dance?
My ancestors were Puritans, homesteaders, they lived in Wyoming for godsakes, I say.
Haven’t you read The Ants and the Grasshopper?
Aesop was a slave, says the grasshopper.
The crows feet at his eyes run deeper than his worry lines.
I don’t know how to wander, I say. I don’t even know how to dance.
He smiles: Take my hand…
December 3, 2018 at 1:42 pm
Secret Life
I fly,
wander the sky,
feel air rise
against my lip.
I drop
to sidewalk,
hide my wings,
walk too slowly
among the busy.
I am reminded
to pay taxes,
pay attention,
pay my dues,
pay my share
of the cost of being grounded.
Come dusk,
I lift my wings,
command homegrown wind
to fly me free again.