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Beautiful and a Little Scary |
by Kenneth Pobo
From our porch I watch
hummingbirds—they have
real focus, I'm jealous,
then again, I don't want to
spend my life hovering
and darting away. Hummers
are no nonsense and fierce,
will get right in my face,
my eyes like pools to sip from,
needle beaks to sew
vision shut. I'm safe
behind screen, holding
a sweaty iced tea glass,
birds unwrapping presents
of nectar in mid-air.
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While Waiting for a Flu Shot |
by Kenneth Pobo
I hear some dreadful man
tell a dreadful woman
that God hates queers
and the dreadful woman responds
that she herself doesn't hate
anybody but God
will smite all his enemies,
including queers. I'm thinking
I could run down the aisle
and get a heavy deodorant can
to stone them with,
smite them very dead,
but the nurse calls my name,
the needle jabs me, and I wish
the tidal wave of hate
would disappear as I walk
back to my car,
protected from one disease,
put at graver risk
by another.
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Pans and Crackers |
by Kenneth Pobo
You're dashing
around the grocery store
trying to decide
which cracker to buy
while I turn up
the volume of Sue Thompson's
anthology, sing
about James holding
the ladder steady so
they can elope and begin
a life where she's scrubbing
a roasting pan and he's
dashing around the grocery
store trying to decide
which cracker to buy—
you drive in,
bags in your arms,
and I remember this is
Pennsylvania, we can't
get married here,
a decision made for us
by people scrubbing
a roasting pan or dashing
around a grocery store
trying to decide
which cracker to buy.
Kenneth Pobo won the 2009 Main Street Rag for his manuscript called "Trina and the Sky." It will be published in December 2009. Catch his radio show, Obscure Oldies, on Saturdays from 6-8pm EST at WDNR.com.
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