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The Gap in the Cedar
—in memory of my father

I saw this much from the window:
the branch spring lightened into place
with a lithe shudder of snow.

Whatever bird had been there,
chickadee or sparrow,
had so vanished into air,

resilient, beyond recall,
it had to be taken on faith
to be taken at all.

In the moment it took the tree
to recover that trembling
something went wide in me—

three was a rush of wings,
the air beaten dim with snow,
and then I saw through the swirling.

~ Roy Scheele

First Love

We fell in love at “Journey for Margaret,”
my mother and I. I was the same age
as Margaret O’Brien, braids and all

and she put her arm on the back of my chair
and touched my head and found the lump
I’d got that morning and forgot I had.

“What’s this?” she whispered and I whispered back
I’d cracked my head against the brick wall
of the savings and Loan walking backwards to school.

And the waves of her giggles washed over me
there in the dark. I had astonished her!
No telling what I’d do next!

But whatever it was, I knew that from then on
what happened between us was just as important
as Margaret O’Brien getting adopted up there on the screen

~ Judith Hemschemeyer

Ego Tripping

(there may be a reason why)

I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad

I sat on the throne
drinking nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
the tears from my birth pains
created the nile
I am a beautiful woman

A gazed on the forest and burned
out the sahara desert
with a packet of goat’s meat
and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
so swift you can’t catch me

For a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
He gave me rome for mother’s day
My strength flows ever on

My son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
jesus
men intone my loving name

All praises All praises
I am the one who would save

I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
the filings from my fingernails are
semi-precious jewels
On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
the earth as I went
The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid

I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended
except by my permission
I mean . . .I . . .can fly
like a bird in the sky

Nikki Giovanni