Ball of Wool
for D.B.A.

terrible journey it has been
especially because of her
not wanting it or us to go anywhere

I with a foot upon the gas
her foot upon brakes

frustrating as the dickens
frustrating the dickens out of me

as intellectually elegant as she is
or seems, to find her in addition,
odd, and not progressive in all matters

what a surprise it was to me to find her
unapologetically unsophisticated
like someone’s old, spinster aunt
stuck in time

and in a back room of the house
clutching her knitting, fist balled
about a ball of wool or yarn
all she has to hold onto

girl 19, girl of my dreams or so I thought
until this element met,
this element discovered
this awkwardness, awkward mess

37 years her senior but it is she
who is much much older
stymied, backward, uptight, stiff
difficult to go with, to live with


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2011
3:56 p.m. 19.01.11