I Take Leonora Carrington to the Prom
And what a time we have! Our slippery
selves become one thing then another,
breaking every rule and expectation.
We dance counterpoint and outside
every time zone, up the stairs, deep
into the shadows, our limbs long and shivery.
We strut and glide and float
in promenade, then do it backwards.
We bring along a parrot, a rake, a milk bottle.
We make crow sounds to drown out sentimental slop.
We offer origami frogs made from weather reports.
We are elated and often unrecognizable.
We deem ourselves magnificent and do not stop at midnight,
but continue on, down avenues and boulevards,
across bridges suspended in zippered fog.
And when the gold coin of a sun rises,
we have no regrets, leave trails
of sunken treasure, blessedly bemused.
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An Out
Is there a bird with a spare wing I might have?
I suppose I should be asking for two
but I hate to be greedy. I’d need to be clever
with just the one. No soaring at the sun
or ascending into a concordance of angels.
Just a small flutter over the forget-me-nots
rampant in the yard. Just a lazy float on the creek
past rocks glittered in sun and mossy pools
near shore. I’m looking for an out
if you haven’t guessed – just briefly
a removal from the weight that has trapped
us all, some of us wreathed in complaints,
some of us stoic, oblivious or in denial,
some of us clear-eyed and exhausted.
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Mercedes Lawry is the author of three chapbooks, the latest, In the Early Garden with Reason, was selected by Molly Peacock for the 2018 WaterSedge Chapbook Contest. Her poetry has appeared in such journals as Poetry, Nimrod, and Alaska Quarterly Review, and she’s been nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize. She’s frequently published short fiction and was a semi-finalist in The Best Small Fictions 2016. Her poetry book, Vestiges, was published in late 2022 by Kelsay Books. Her collection Small Measures was recently released by ELJ Editions.
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Stone Poetry Quarterly 