Thanks

Thanks

by Alicia Millar

Day-dreaming

plain-faced

sorta crazy

basket case

loves to drink

and laugh and dance

glad you came

and took a chance

Three Constants

Three Constants

Alicia Millar

Thy say the two constants of the universe are death and taxes,

but I'd like to add ethnic slurs to that list.

Every day I have to listen to them making their jokes, always seasoned with contempt and disrespect - well maybe they don't have any respect, they're "just being honest,"

but why do I have to hear about how "retarded" they think Certain People are EVERY OTHER MINUTE?

That's their favorite word. Their only word. Flavor of the year. Yeesh.

It's funny to me how they can accuse those Certain People of being so "imagination-challenged,"

but find themselves penned in by such a stunted vocabulary. Like sheep in the pasture of sameness, chewing the same cud, and crying the same thing (Retaaarded! Retaaarded! Baaaa!).

So there it is.

Death, taxes, and ethnic slurs.

Death taxes and ethnic slurs.

Death taxes and ethnic slurs.

Retaaarded!

Love as an Organism

Love as an Organism

by Alicia Millar

They say they want what we have -

as if we're some kind of ideal.

What they don't get is that we're

never the same,

one day to the next:

Today, I'm fire, and you're the hearth,

holding my temper in place,

channeling the smoke, which you know is harmless anyway

Tomorrow you'll be a cool breeze

on a summer's day,

I, the reeds that bend to your will,

and could deny you nothing

The day after tomorrow I'll be water

running places, not even sure where I'm going

except that I seem to find myself perpetually damp,

but I know that on that day you'll be an amphora,

ready to catch the parts of me that try to run

(like a river)

away from it all

I could not have lived with an unmoving, unchanging, unfeeling rock.

I could not have loved one.

Goodbye Hunger

Goodbye Hunger

by Alicia Millar

Today I say goodbye to you, hunger,

I have found another way to fill up,

to grow up,

and most importantly,

to show up

for my own life

Today I ran!

Faster than you!

and all I had to do,

was put one foot in front of the other,

leaving you, to:

eat my dust, eat your heart out, and taste defeat

While my feet

left you far, far back

filling me up,

one step at a time,

by devouring the track

Prisoners of ID

Prisoners of ID

by Alicia Millar

Escaping from their keepers,

inmates fly

their motley crowns askew,

they try

to reign with rubber fists and

counterfeit logic;

build foundations in the sky

Outlandish! The keepers holler,

their voices getting

smaller,

they can not yell

over ringing bells

on motley shoes that

dance and prance

and soil the floor of order

No Mercy

No Mercy

by Alicia Millar

No self-esteem,

your gaze seems to say

- accuse, rather

as if it were a crime,

something to be ashamed of

and cause unbearable guilt.

How DARE you hate yourself?

While kids starve in Africa and the Haitians look for aid.

Those are REAL people with REAL problems.

Honestly, what right do you have?

And all I can do is offer my excuses:

Because...Because...Because...

But the reflection never has mercy.

Architecture

Architecture

by Alicia Millar

Under curling leafs

unfurling

are the beams

in the twisting bark

and mountains misting

are the seams

in winding water

finding oceans

buttress flies

in leaping leopards

reaping prey

foundation lies

where god and science

live in conscience

are the plans

in constellations

revelations made by man

Never Kept

Never Kept

by Alicia Millar

You never kept me in your heart

So I'm free

to think, to love, to see

accountable only to me

and can blessedly tell

our values apart

I could not have lasted in your heart

Envies the Rain

Envies the Rain

by Alicia Millar

The girl watches

knees pulled to chest,

the rain that falls

the drops are all

so lovely

each one the same

the nature of rain

making their kamakaze plunge

towards the concrete

an army of Magritte

clones one and all, those little men,

and though they fall

to their demise,

the girl is sad to realize

that she envies every one of them.

On Dating a Lovely Parrot

On Dating a Lovely Parrot

by Alicia Millar

That girl you keep

I hope she's sweet

she asks an awful lot

Don't forget

she's not your pet

nor something that you bought

If she's a bird

whose only words

are "buy me" this and that

You might think twice

it could be nice

to trade her for a cat

Sink

Sink

by Alicia Millar

My spirit, the water

My body, the well

My wish is the stone,

I cast into Hell

Down in those depths

where old wishes sigh

is the child I once was

not ready to die

Period

Period

by Alicia Millar

A life punctuated with

question marks,

exclamations of sorrow or outrage

and ellipses thrown out into space like fishing line

to prompt the universe

to give an answer

- ANY answer

as to why things are

and why we must carry out this life-sentence?

Where is the POINT in it all?!...

No answer to the question comes,

but as always,

the daisies nod their heads in the breeze

as if to assure us:

"Don't worry, you'll see it at the end."

Suicide

Suicide

by Alicia Millar

A self-deprecating joke,

like suicide,

we reveal much of ourselves

in how we hide

I Heart Rabbits

I Heart Rabbits

(A Story of China)

by Alicia Millar

Rabbits! Rabbits!

In the woods!

Warrens are their

neigborhoods

Rabbits! Rabbits!

In their huts!

Coax them forward

give them nuts!

Look! On TV!

Rabbits selling Ginseng tea!

In the factories

making shoes!

I love rabbits!

Yes, I do!

Rabbits! Rabbits!

Everywhere!

Rabbits even,

in my hair!

I love rabbits!

Yes, I do!

In my wallet!

In my stew!

Anger

Anger

by Alicia Millar

Not fast, nor

decisively,

with no winner

precisely,

the colonists came,

arm-bands bearing red

- red is their color

the color of their flags

on a field of black and white,

where their cornerstones were laid

their math always right,

and no room for "maybe"

the Governor is

a bully to the natives

who almost accept this invasion

with saucer-eyed wonder,

but for the primal guerrilla

who knows,

as far as life goes,

there must be room left for innocence