Poetry Kathleen Flenniken — April 23, 2012 13:27 — 0 Comments
Let Me Sleep 20 More Minuets – Kathleen Flenniken
. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â –note from Elisabeth, age 12
Here’s more buckles and silk ruffles, twenty
more waltzes and gavottes, twenty minutes
of intricately tatted footsteps
across a ballroom of god rays. Step
lighter than a shed eyelash, than twenty
slow breaths as Morning
(old schoolmarm) taps her baton. More minutes,
more spherical music, more slipper-steps
in high tops, Elisabeth. Here, my dear, twenty-
times-twenty minuets. Step, curtsy, it’s over like that.
What am I?
Bioluminescent eye
That sees by the shine
Of its own light. Lies
Blind me. I am the seventh human sense
And my stepchild,
Consequence;
Scientists can't find me.
Januswise I make us men;
Glamour
Was my image then—
Remind me:
The awful fall up off all fours
From the forest
To the hours…
Tick, Tock: Divine me.
-- Richard Kenney