Monday, July 05, 2010

teeth is all

brush my teeth is all
she asked me what i was doin’
teeth is all i'm doin’
teeth is all

then seven-thirty and we were driving.
she wanted to pick blue berries early
before it got 90 plus humid degrees.
many, many, a record many pickers had the same idea.

through a heavily wooded area on the way,
the guard rail ahead at the crossing came down.
oh no, a train, i moaned, then zip - like that
a locomotive and one train car flashed by.

forty feet ahead of us a buck deer crossed the road
from woods on one side to woods on the other.
two small young deer came out undecided on the road.
we waited 'til the adult female rushed them across to the woods.

at another bend in the road
was a large wild turkey in the brush.
right at the side of the road's where he sat.
a big guy, geeze he was fat.

back home after berries, a blue jay had hit our kitchen widow.
looked open, too clean? don't think so, more than likely
he was thinking distracted and flying too fast.
was lying dead when we arrived. m. got the shovel, buried it.

and the day began
with m. waiting in the car.
only needed a minute to brush my
teeth is all.

3 comments:

Annie said...

This poem makes me think about how the progress of a day may change, based on a minute's difference. Would you still have seen the deer, would you have been caught by the train? I can't think how the bird's life may or may not have changed, but who knows? Not to say, taking a minute to brush your teeth was a good thing or a bad thing. Leaving sooner could have created its own disasters, or joys. Leaving a minute later, you got to see some wildlife. I hope the blueberries were perfectly delicious!

jack sender said...

that's a good point you made.
timing made it all happen.
Annie, thanks for your comments.

this poem began, and then ended, with
the sound of the words "teeth is all".

i have noticed phrases that have sounds, to me, as powerful as the meaning of the words.
that is not expressed well, but what i mean is the sounds got my attention. this happens maybe once a month or so, that i notice particular word combinations. this is the first time i wrote using one of these sound oddities.

jack sender said...

well, i don't know if it is the first time. i've written a lot, am aware of sounds of words and may have done this other times.