Get Me to the Church on Time
by Ann Bogle
I was hoping for a language-free moment,
a moment to discourage the word.
I was, as you know, a prisoner
to my tongue, could bite it.
In my upper room, a sermon
was playing about sundry. I hid
on the stairs, listening, talking back
to it, but it couldn't hear me because it
was talking. I let it.
What choice did I have?
It was a good one, what to do with old guns:
bury them in the cellar, one by one.
I grew attached to my upper air, slept
with a pillow near the ground, it was no
basement, anymore; they'd blasted the bottom
half of her, left me to untie my shoes
from a distance of seventy feet —
that was because I have a cut. Sorry,
I said, meaning it, but it was nothing
to make up for. Next time try taking it.
a moment to discourage the word.
I was, as you know, a prisoner
to my tongue, could bite it.
In my upper room, a sermon
was playing about sundry. I hid
on the stairs, listening, talking back
to it, but it couldn't hear me because it
was talking. I let it.
What choice did I have?
It was a good one, what to do with old guns:
bury them in the cellar, one by one.
I grew attached to my upper air, slept
with a pillow near the ground, it was no
basement, anymore; they'd blasted the bottom
half of her, left me to untie my shoes
from a distance of seventy feet —
that was because I have a cut. Sorry,
I said, meaning it, but it was nothing
to make up for. Next time try taking it.
|
11
favs |
1358 views
16 comments |
139 words
All rights reserved. |
Author's Note
Published in P.F.S. Post, Adam Fieled, Ed.; onedit, Tim Atkins, Ed., and October Babies, Marc Vincenz, Ed.
http://artrecess.blogspot.com/2007/02/ann-bogle-minnesota-usa-two-poems.html
http://www.onedit.net/issue12/issue12.html
http://octoberbabies.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/get-me-to-the-church-on-time/
http://poetrystorehouse.com/2015/03/15/ann-bogle-poems/
Included in my handmade chapbook, _dog barks up a tree at the apple left in it under a deerslim moon_, Dusie Kollektiv, designed by Kai Fierle-Hedrick, 2008, housed at Poets House, New York
http://www.dusie.org/issuenine.html
1991, revised in 2006
Other stories by Ann Bogle
Tags
Groups
-
10+ Favs
Public group136 members
Comments
You must
log in
to post comments.
I like the surreal shiftings in the middle of the poem. Very effective. And the progression of sound through the piece. Stellar work, Ann. *
This partakes of the raw realities of childhood and couches them in " surreal shiftings." I will read this poem again and again. It reaches places most don't know exist. You should write more poems: this one is exceptional, fit for an anthology.
Sweet. Funny. What they said (smile).
So great, Ann!
*
I think this is very good
(because I enjoyed it very much).
This is lean and powerful. just the right balance.
Your comments are enlivening, David Ackley's in particular, time to write more poetry and time to color with colored pens ... more! Thanks, Sam, and all of you.
I've read this several times and think it's the movement of it that I like best in it.
Disturbing (that's a good thing). *
Excellent work by a very sure hand and mind.
Thanks, Steven, Tina, and Darryl.
"It was a good one, what to do with old guns:
bury them in the cellar, one by one." beautiful stuff. *
Good language and sounds.
Thanks, both Dan and Bud.
This came to my inbox today from Beliefnet: 7 Gatekeepers of the Tongue:
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1 Peter 3:13-15
James 1:26
Matthew 15:10-11
Proverbs 15:1
Psalm 34:13
Romans 14:10-12
I wrote the poem in 1991 following Bible osmosis.
I noticed today that Zora Neale Hurston's title Every Tongue Got to Confess comes from Romans 14:11
I agree with Tina - this disturbed me too and that's what I liked about it.