Negative Capability Press Poetry Blog

3

lizard tails

this was "inspired" by Time Done Is Dark by Archibald MacLeish--another poem from my calendar. This isn't quite a response, just maybe my part of a conversation with him--i would just be trying to keep up. hope all is well with everyone, as always. here it is; please bear with me:

childhood was a bright red wagon
the wooden kind
evenly spaced slats
the sides high enough
to buffer
the precious cargo
inside-
uncovered, exposed and laughing.

1

just light enough
to be dragged along
by our forty pound frames
just sturdy enough
to contain that same
forty pound frame
as a friend
accompanied us
over the bumps in the road
and the occasional tail
of a lizard
moving too fast
and still a tad too slow
for our
bright red wagon
with no brakes.

the bumps were always
too low
to cause any real damage
and the lizard's tail
always grew back
a first lesson in resilience
and
defense mechanisms-

preparation for adulthood
where we haul
a permanent collection
of lizard tails
in the
splintering red wagon
still uncovered and exposed enough
to allow
the occasional tossing
of our resilience and
defense mechanisms into the air-

as the bumps get bigger
and more treacherous
we, heavier than then,
are somehow
less sturdy and contained
we grip the slats
white-knuckled and rigid
our first lesson in vulnerability
alone
our lizard tails scattered behind us
out of reach.