Personals

First Appeared in Meadow

Some say I have a degree in worry but they are wrong.
It’s a Ph.D. in catastrophe. That said, all’s OK now and then
with a few forgotten highs and many remembered lows.
I used to like houseplants but now I mostly weed. I love dahlias
but mine tend to wither. There are water shortages interspersed
with deluges. Oh, and I tend to be contrarian.
On the subject of animals: Ctenophores were family favorites––
my dad filled my mother’s water glasses with their soft floaty
and occasionally luminescent forms when he ran out of specimen jars.
Fires are warm and wonderful if our toddlers don’t wander into them.
I am shrinking in all dimensions now.
Maybe someday I will be an angel on the head of a pin.
We were going to have our neighbor’s trees trimmed
but the arborist told us time and the Bronze Birch Borer Beetle
would save us a lot of money. He was right.
If I could remember that I put a pot on the stove, I might cook.
I won music awards but they got away from me.
I am good at talking back and bad at talking nice.
If this were New York City, my feet would hurt.
Women wearing spike heels better Uber everywhere.
I beg for attention. It’s easier to net birds than you think but
it’s a shitload of trouble to get them out wings intact.
Beware of owls. I find praying mantises
in the strangest places. I would like to see Elvis somewhere.
I’ve aged out of cataclysmic metamorphosis
and I can’t find my sister’s argument or sea stars.
Move over God, you clod, I’m taking the helm.

Laura Celise Lippman