Ice-Tongue

[We'll start with a silly one... I wrote this to the un-born child of one of my good friends... I was living in Turkey, at the time... the year the huge earthquake hit... I was traveling -- in Slovakia, to be with her for the delivery, and several weeks before said delivery -- when the big one hit, but was there for the smaller ones and most of the relief work... Most of my poems are brief moments of "inspiration", so come out in about 10-15 minutes -- a dramatic splash in life and then it's gone. Think of it like a bug splat on your windshield. The greats all polish and re-polish their stuff, so it comes out perfectly, with all the right tones, nuances and implications... all that to say, I am NOT a writer and I feel rather naked and embarrassed putting these out here, because they're terrible... ack! but it was all so long ago... and you ASKED FOR IT... :D ]


ICE-TONGUE

Child, if you should come out like
A frozen popsicle,

It’s because your mother kept
A water-filled pitcher

Lodging safely, unperturbed,
Freezing till its rear

Thought of nothing else to yell, but:
“GET ME OUT OF HERE!!”

Then she’d take a sharpened knife
Keen to start the task

Of chipping quite enamoredly
From hardened water flask.

Each sweetly-severed piece of ice
Was soon to find its way

(Unless perchance it was too big—
It too then had its day)

Into her gentle, caring mouth
And softly savored there;

Or sometimes crunched and munched to death
With happy childish air

Of one who knew she mustn’t chew
A mouthful rough and hard

—Just like you don’t hunt down and drink
A pound of melted lard.

Nevertheless, a moment’s bliss
Was worth a few dry tears

From worried friends who’d rather see
That in a million years

She wore her white enamel fangs
Without a crack and run,

Complaining of their maltreatment
In name of yum-yum-yum,

And other such redundant claims
All for the sake of craving

A knowing, naughty child’s smile
—Your mother misbehaving.

—Angelina Phantom—GODMOTHER
11:00-11:15 PM; August 30, 1999