Take2

Home -- Blog -- EastWesterly Review -- Take2 -- Martin Fan Bureau -- Fonts a Go-Go -- Games -- Film Project -- Villagers -- Graveyard

Custom Search

Take2

Issue 18
Issue 17
Issue 16
Issue 15
Issue 14
Issue 13
Issue 12
Issue 11
Issue 10
Issue 9
Issue 8
Issue 7
Issue 6
Issue 5
Issue 4
Issue 3
Issue 2
Issue 1

FAQ

Links

help support us -- shop through this Amazon link!


Creative Commons License

This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial
4.0 International License
.

Postmodern Village
est. 1999
e-mail * terms * privacy
I've Spent Hours Turning Rocks
by Hezekiah Allen Taylor

I know this guy who keeps all his horniest poems in the refrigerator, stuffed in a grocery bag. He wraps each precious word in the air-tight seal of cfc's right next to the beer and dried-out leftovers, as if that will save them from the wrath of the poetry world once he's gone--contain all the death and love and sex for posterity.

When I was younger, I would smuggle books about sex into the library bathroom because I was too embarrassed to check them out. I'd huddle down in one corner of the handicapped stall way up on the third floor and I'd read about breast size and penis sensitivity, like I was studying Algebra.

My mother finally convinced granma to seal the edges of familial silence with fire, to burn her marriage certificate to my grandfather. All of this to keep my uncle from understanding that he's a bastard. It's the act of not telling that keeps it from sinking in.

I knew this woman once, back when I was a kid; she used to tell me about death, illness, religious conversion, all within the cheery, tea pot walls of her kitchen. "I've spent hours turning rocks," she would say in metaphor, laughing. It was all lined up in her bathroom sink, her crystal dishware, her book shelves. No mourner ever found soft secrets hidden in a corner drawer. At death, her life was in perfect order.

Francine's Version -- Hezekiah's Version -- Inspiration
Previous Poem -- Next Poem -- Table of Contents