The Lover Who Would Stay (poem - 1993)

class assignment - poem using metaphor (smoking compared to a dangerous lover)

Fifteen years old with time on my hands, thought I'd take you up on a dare.
To Marlboro Country, that's where I went. Tried to ride your wicked, black mare.

By the time I had met you, you had been through all my friends.
But I was your baby chick; they had been a "bunch of hens."

The Mask (poem - November 1993)

For now we see through a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then shall I understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.

I Corinthians 13: 12 (Bible, Revised Standard Version)

one night, I awoke and found myself walking
through the misty darkness and dewy grass

to the brightness calling out in the distance
beckoning, come home (come home)

over the dunes and to the beach, along the moonlit path
a celestial being took my hand

guiding me to the silvery shore, the boundary
separating life and death, this world from the next

like a silken cocoon hiding the wings of a Monarch,
a majestic ship waited, sails at half-mast

cherubim and seraphim ushered me
inside towards the beckoning brilliance

swept into ecstasy, helpless without fear
I surrendered my soul, joyfully dancing forever

in the warmth of the light with those gone before me
many faces, some familiar, all of them friends

suddenly, stood the One, statuesque and strong
peering but through a mask

I knew those eyes, but how? I'd not been there before
then, His guise removed, I knew

Men at Work (poem - October 1995)

(class assignment - personal/reflective prose)

Five against one, but there was no turning back
I braced for their cat calls, fearing an attack

Frantic, I grabbed for the spray in my purse.
And proceeded with caution, no time to rehearse

Hey little sweatheart, why you actin' so afraid
Have no plans to hurtcha, I'm just looking to get laid

Rolling up his sleeves, he flashed an eery, toothless grin
'Most Wanted's where I saw him or at least his evil twin

Like Goliath, he came charging, felt my knees begin to give
My heart pounded like a hammer, but I knew I'd fight to live

I warned and then pleaded; he politely conceded by grabbing me 'round the waist
Without hesitating, I fired like a robot; some say I acted in haste

The others ran to him, the joker and flirt, the otherwise harmless drunk
But even they knew he had gone too far; yes, in their eyes he'd sunk

Though I could have stayed and chatted; I quickly fled the scene
But I wrote about my triumph, sent it to Ms. Magazine

Looking back, too bad I had to teach him such a lesson
At least it was with mace, though, and not a Smith and Wesson