Waffle Iron
for Claudia Williamson

ruffle your feathers with a word or two
with a roar or two

what do you do when lightning flashes
when thunder rolls

jump out of your skin, hide in the closet
or under the bed

no longer little enough
to go under yur ma gown
or under the kitchen table

are you a Williamson, like Sam
Williamson your maiden name
it seems like a name which came with marriage

could you have gone this far, this long
without having been gobbled up
swallowed by a wedding band

have you room inside you
a wide enough esophagus
I’ve been awaiting a woman to swallow me

however dainty or delicate a woman is
she must fit about a man, must fit about us all
until we are released into this world

what light breaks when morning breaks
or at birth and a baby cries if not dead

a mother all night long, pushing her heart out,
new life out, adding to the light of the world
or this world’s darkness

plug in, plug out, without end

the sun, the sons, the sand
falling in an hour glass


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2009
12:22 a.m. 12.10.09