Karen Jakubowski’s most recent poem to appear here was I Am a Woman (November 2012).
Shaking the Family Tree
By Karen Jakubowski
Under abnormal conditions
face the winter naked.
Take the globe to its knees.
What could go wrong
having lived with the crazies?
face the winter naked.
Take the globe to its knees.
What could go wrong
having lived with the crazies?
Ride the car wash
windows lowered,
thrill of body flopping
among soapy sponges.
Cold water stings
like angry paper wasps.
Pay the cashier to proofread
the battered memoirs,
the rising welts, the language of bruises.
Can almost hear the air
whooshing in reverse
as hope escapes a cracked lung.
Assassinate the voice
whispering bad nothings.
Reinvent graveyard groans.
Crash the rusted gate,
rattle the cage, stand on the stage
go-go dancing on opinion’s cadaver.
