Poetry of Gloria G. Murray

 

Gloria Murray’s chapbook can be purchased via: http://www.gggm.8k.com or e-mail glmurra@suffolk.lib.ny.us

 

JUST LIKE THE STUMP

 

from that old maple--

digging and tearing

you ripped me

out of your heart

 

one whole month

you worked on that tree

in the blistering August sun

until your fingers bled

and the skin pulled away

from the bone

and the veins in your neck

bulged into purple twisted vines

 

I took longer--

thirty-five years

tugging and wrenching

until you could break

open those roots

until you could dig out that earth

and close up the hole

where once I had stood

with long, leafy arms

and nest of birds in my hair

       . . . . . . . .

 

ROLLER COASTER

 

it makes you dizzy

the ups & downs

the soaring to the sky

the plummeting to erth

the screams

the wind rushing through hair

the eyes wild with fear

and excitement

 

it reminds you of life

how it straps you in

how it jerks you around

how it makes you sick

how you'd vomit

if you didn't

have to clean it up

 

  .  .   .   .   .

 

FEMINISMN

 

we are fragmented women

walking the narrow, cobbled streets

of desperation--

a baby under one arm

a resume under the other

 

.............Gloria g. Murray

 

LITTLE WOMEN

for Pam

my daughter wants bigger bones

instead of the small fragile ones

she inherited from me

she wants to become

an amazon woman

lift men off this planet

and whirl them to the moon

I tell her--

we are little women

need men to carry our baggage

build our nests

hunt our prey

she is angry that I gave her

willowy arms

breasts that ache

a womb that opens

leaving its crimson trail

across the earth

I tell her--

O daughter, wear your womanhood

like a proud banner in the sun

even the smallest bird can fly

and the root of the Bonsai

is stronger than the oak

I can't repeat what she tells me

. . . . .

WALKING ON EGG SHELLS

is what Iearned

instead of tap

or twirling on my toes

. . . . .

copyright 1999. ggm