"When I used to focus on the worries, everybody"
By Joanne Kyger
When I used to focus on the worries, everybody
was ahead of me, I was the bottom
of the totem pole,
a largely spread squat animal.
How about a quick massage now, he said to me.
I don’t think it’s cool, I replied.
Oh, said he, after a pause, I should have waited
for you to ask me.
The waves came in closer and closer.
When I fall into the gap of suspicion I am no longer here.
In this world that has got closed over by houses
and networks, I fly out
from under the belly. Life’s dizzy crown
of whirling lights, circles this head. Pure
with wonder, hot
with wonder. The streets become golden. All
size increases, the colors glow, we are in myth.
We are in easy understanding.
Scarcely talking, thoughts pass between us.
It is memory. As I search to find
this day’s sweet drifting. The fog out to sea, the wind.
Copyright Credit: Joanne Kyger, "[When I used to focus on the worries, everybody...]" from About Now: Collected Poems, published by the National Poetry Foundation. Copyright © 2007 by Joanne Kyger. Reprinted by permission of Joanne Kyger.
Source: About Now: Collected Poems (National Poetry Foundation, 2007)