I was trying to play with repetition -- a sort of condensed pantoum.

Conception

whiteflies: small, winged,
strobes around her for a while
how vividly the moonlight then

the rustling of leaves, the accompanying insects
small deer, white-tailed, sailed from tree to tree
the frogs and insects sang together
a drip accompanied the soft distant music
how vividly, to his surprise, soft insects

tanagers sang from the dense green foliage
she trilled the feeblest notes
her crops vivid, soft and green

grass a brilliant color and insects
they sang it for the whole school
in the dense vivid jungle

to their surprise, she and he recalled
no insects singing
in the bushes and in the shrubs
vividly dense
-----

Inspired, just a bit from the results, here --
http://www.leevilehto.net/google/google.asp

Hey, I'm going to be on the Goodnight Show again in a couple weeks. Or maybe one week. I'm so flattered I got asked again. It's for the one about the husband a couple poems down.

Random picture because I'm feeling good:



Also, hungry like the wolf. (couldn't help it, just couldn't)

Also, I'm on 25 peeps. Click for pleasure.

Mine, not yours.

Letter #11

Dear Inmate,

I have your daughter here
with me in your old cell.
I can see where she gets her nose.

She is so light her tap shoes
barely leave scuff marks on
the walls. She practices
her dance for me, sliding and shuffling
as if her feet were being pecked by tiny
sparrows. I see those unkempt birds
in her eyes, in the way she flaps
her elbows. Our skirts happen
to match -- white ruffles with red
embroidery, men following men
with hammers, all along the hem.

When she stands close in the crook
of my arm, as she is now, I can
hardly tell where one frill ends
and another begins to fray.

Your daughter's tall for her age,
but still as thin as a cloud
stretched translucent. This spot,
here, where her jaw meets her neck,
where I can see her milky pulse
fluttering, is where I hold
the point of my pistol.

Awaiting your immediate return, yrs., etc.

Unhappiness

"I am so unhappy." "I cannot play with you," the fox said. "I am not tamed."

I am so unhappy today. I am so unhappy.

I am so unhappy. And I blame myself for not trying hard enough.

I cry when I get home.

I am so unhappy with my relationship of 20 years, I really don’t love her anymore.

I am so unhappy that I drink alcohol and cheat on him.

If god loves me, why I am so unhappy?

I am so unhappy with Cingular.

The blacksmith looked at the stone carver and he shouted, "I am so unhappy . . . I don't want to be the sun anymore. ...

I am so unhappy in my home.

I am so unhappy when I should be grateful to have survived this long

I am so unhappy here, I thought about leaving the area altogether, but decided to look around first. I need two bedrooms.

I am so unhappy with myself, the way I look, and for letting myself get so lost.

I am so unhappy, as to know that what I am fond of are Trifles, and that what I neglect is of the greatest Importance.

I am so unhappy with the way that I am treated that I would leave if I could.

I am so unhappy. What more do you want?

I am so unhappy. I am not happy. I am so not happy.

I am so unhappy, and all that should have made me otherwise is so laid waste, that if I had been bereft of sense to this hour.

“She at least has done you no wrong, and I am so unhappy, so unhappy!” cried Madame Lavretsky, and she melted into tears.

A new form of expression for what was so unpalatable to him, 'this concealment, into which I am so unhappy as to have led Miss Spenlow.’

I am SO unhappy with the way I look. I'll give you a tour starting from the top and working down.

I am so unhappy. It is too late to become a ballet dancer.

‘‘I am so unhappy at leaving madre. What will she do without me?’’ Manuelita said, as the carriage drove from the door.