It’s time to get up from a North Pole
to put an end to the endless peeking
at neighbors and passers-by
or if you said you had no knowledge of it
you couldn’t shake off
on sudden long November nights
deafening polyphony.
Once there was a grandmother
near the grape vines
which seems twice as long
with the sun/slant on the two chairs
put there to represent us
and manifest purpose
since you don’t stick to the poem
as if bed is the only way to deal with
or sew a rip in his pajamas;
when the clocks were set back
he says you should have thrown them out
and you know he can turn it on or off depending
because the machine doesn’t lie.
She worked in china in a toy store
for a little while
then fired for no adrenalin rush
on down the line
listening to yourself sing
So you are here for breakfast- eggs in
something re: sentient something
for the day is clearly blue except for
asking why are you tracking umber leaves.
There was some good news and some bad news,
she gave the grandchildren a Teddy Bear
sadly they didn’t love but hid in the leaves
where we met an old friend;
in the village, always planning a future event
it was so odd we found nothing was moving
still there never is time to evolve
singing multiple amens.
* * * * *
Joan Payne Kincaid has published a collection of work entitled Greatest Hits with Pudding House Publications. She has also published a book with Wayne Hogan entitled The Umbrella Poems in which we both contributed drawings of some of our poems. She has also published a collection of haiku entitled Snapshoots on the web at <TMPoetry.com>. Her work has been published in Hawaii Review, Limestone Poetry Review, Licking River Review, Iodine, Hampden,Sydney Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, Santa Clara Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, South Central Review, The South Carolina Review, Cross Currents, Georgetown Review, Edgz, 88, Oyez, Modern Haiku, Iconoclast, Lynx Eye, Yalobusha Review, Mother Earth Journal, Tule Review, The Quarterly, Cairn, among others. Her contributions to Dr. Hurley’s Snake-Oil Cure can be found here.