Such Intense Digestion
…five
ideas can swallow a man;three words im
-prison a woman for all her now: but we’ve
such freedom such intense digestion so
much greenness only dying makes us grow
–e.e. cummings
I’m going to make my stomach behave,
obedient, contrite, domesticated.
wearing a school uniform,
patent leather shoes,
standing orderly in line. hands in the pockets. RE-education!
going to make her swallow
everything I want.
But we’re not on speaking terms.
longstanding grudges, and all. years of abuse. retorts,
demands for therapy and owed-psychoanalysis. as if I failed
parenting.
plus I don’t understand dialect.
or don’t choose to,
who knows. but she plays the same way!
drawing straws and tubes, bickering through some
unhappy elected negotiator,
who’ll say sorry, and who’ll speak first.
Originally Published: Salt, volume 15, December 2002