Price Tags on Gifts
for D.B.A.
i.
I always show her my hand
in poems of her, in notes to myself
one way or another, somehow or other
she gets to see my hand
am I playing with her or against her
am I for her or against her
is she for me or against me
want her always
to be armed with the advantage
of knowing what cards I have
instead of holding the hand I have to my chest
I always bring her in on it
reveal to her my hand,
what cards I have exactly
to place down before her
rather than wait to surprise her
when it is placed down
when it is pulled out
I arm her to act against me
and I'm surprised when she does
keeps what she has to play to herself
if not all the time, most of the time
so when we argue or fight, she wins
or can win easily
that is if I did not turn ugly
or turn to ugly or turn too ugly
or turn myself inside-out
ii.
shorter by far and younger by far
yet how amazingly we embrace
or we've begun to embrace
wrap her in my arms
wrapped in her arms
small child and me
in something or other
in each others arms
armed in each other,
invincible, I go about
in this armor of love
mi amor y yo
on one day or another of the week
would meet, arms to enfold her in
embrace two share to share
her bosom up against me
pressed up against each other
two palms in prayer
© Obediah Michael Smith, 2010
Written on Saturday
between 10:20 a.m. & 12:19 p.m.
November 13, 2010
for D.B.A.
i.
I always show her my hand
in poems of her, in notes to myself
one way or another, somehow or other
she gets to see my hand
am I playing with her or against her
am I for her or against her
is she for me or against me
want her always
to be armed with the advantage
of knowing what cards I have
instead of holding the hand I have to my chest
I always bring her in on it
reveal to her my hand,
what cards I have exactly
to place down before her
rather than wait to surprise her
when it is placed down
when it is pulled out
I arm her to act against me
and I'm surprised when she does
keeps what she has to play to herself
if not all the time, most of the time
so when we argue or fight, she wins
or can win easily
that is if I did not turn ugly
or turn to ugly or turn too ugly
or turn myself inside-out
ii.
shorter by far and younger by far
yet how amazingly we embrace
or we've begun to embrace
wrap her in my arms
wrapped in her arms
small child and me
in something or other
in each others arms
armed in each other,
invincible, I go about
in this armor of love
mi amor y yo
on one day or another of the week
would meet, arms to enfold her in
embrace two share to share
her bosom up against me
pressed up against each other
two palms in prayer
© Obediah Michael Smith, 2010
Written on Saturday
between 10:20 a.m. & 12:19 p.m.
November 13, 2010
posted by Obie Quiet at 8:24 PM
2 Comments:
How potent the images are- the two central ones- hands and arms. And every time you mentioned arms I couldn't help but to think about guns lol.
When you think about it, hands and arms are very important in human relationships. Aren't they instrumental in the expression of love and other emotions well mostly hands I suppose?
Dee, it is rather interesting the relationship between love and war or the two sides of one coin that these often are. For me arms are often like straps or like ribbons about gifts or like love vine. What I say about or discovered about hands, standing before a painting in a building in Budapest, is that we use our hands to put things together or to take things apart. The suggesting was that everything we do with hands fall in one of these two categories.
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