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Old Selene Telling Lies

January 6, 2011 • • 26 Comments

My old feet are pinprick cold these days.

I sleep in socks and dream of stars
and wear slippers all day long.

I ruined these beat old stompers
when security had me marched
down from the moon.

(Hand me that Epsom salt, would you, hon?)

It was a long road down,
and I wore lousy shoes.
The way was cold, strewn with debris,
the Earth just bluing then.

I stumbled over gravity, kicked back
the comet curtain and saw you,
so beautiful by the pale light
of my old waning moon.

I lost track of the steps I took, then.
Eventually, I quit counting all the miles.

In the end, though, they forgot all about me,
but then that’s just how it goes
for us used-up old goddesses, isn’t it?

(Oh, baby, these dogs’re barking.)

—

This is for Big Tent Poetry’s latest prompt, which suggests we write about feet. That’s where this started but then it walked off (har-har, oh I slay me) in a surprising direction when I found myself writing the line about walking down from the moon.

There are just a few gnarled oak chapbooks left. It’s a collection of my favorite micro-poems from 2010 previously tweeted, ‘dented or otherwise shared. Let me know if you want one. They’re free and I’ll ship them anywhere.

Read more feet poems here.

Published inPoems

26 Comments

  1. angie angie

    I couldn’t even begin to think of where to go with this prompt, and now I’m not even going to try. I love this!

    especially:
    I sleep in socks and dream of stars
    and wear slippers all day long.

    and:
    I stumbled over gravity, kicked back
    the comet curtain and saw you,
    so beautiful by the pale light
    of my old waning moon.

    pretty foot-astic. 😀

    # January 6, 2011 Reply
  11. Dick Dick

    Poor old Selene – what an ignominious end after all that inconstancy! Witty and a tad poignant too – a nice balance, James.

    # January 8, 2011 Reply
  15. Brenda Brenda

    I really enjoyed your poem, James. It reminded me of an illustrated children’s story from long ago. A man walking from the moon, white hair like clouds, bringing magic with him, or was it night? I like the idiosyncratic collection of images thrown together, Alice-Wonderland-like. Delightful. Thanks…

    # January 9, 2011 Reply
  16. Joseph Harker Joseph Harker

    Spectacular! The rhythm and voice that come through are perfectly contained and developed… it took me another read-through before I noticed the title, which added another great complication. Very very very well done.

    # January 10, 2011 Reply
  18. Deb Deb

    Well I think you should match this to a blues tune and play it on your dad’s guitar (or yours, of course, since he has his).

    I swear I can hear it in my head. 🙂

    # January 13, 2011 Reply
    • James James

      You know, Deb, the title was almost “Old Selene Singing Her Blues” but I changed it. No I’m wondering if I might change it back one day…

      # January 13, 2011 Reply

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