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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781947548404 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Regal House Publishing |
| Publication date: | 11/15/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 80 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
INORGANIC
Power
Children feel powerful when they own a whistle.
Kim Jong-un prefers to launch a missile.
Wayfarer
A button sewn on shirt or dress is brilliant until it disappears under unknown duress.
Parsimony
Snips of thread, if we save them —
maybe from a fraying hem or heel of an unraveling sock —
may make a skirt or useful smock.
The Smile
The smile speaks words:
Kindness Enjoyment Fondness Sweetness Congeniality Help A smile is something like a dictionary but you don't have to look it up.
Just smile.
Correction
Consider the hat.
It lingers in the hall on a hat rack.
Occasionally someone will pick up the wrong hat and stroll out with it on his or her head.
All one must do is turn around and put it back and "All will be well and all will be well and every kind of thing shall be well,"
said Julian of Norwich.
Résumé
A favorite cup proclaims a person's point of view.
A motto may be printed on the cup or cup otherwise tarted up.
I have a Princeton cup,
a Rockefeller cup,
a cup reminding me that peace is inner,
a cup that says I am the mother of a dog,
and I want to get a Philosophy cup.
That's my résumé in toto.
The Right to Choose
I mean to celebrate door knobs.
Because of doorknobs,
we can get where we're going,
a movie, say, or a party,
or a way out.
To grip a door knob is to exercise your right to enter and leave and what goes on between here and there is no one's business but your own.
Keeping One's Cool
I speak of fans.
Not Beatle fans,
nor movie fans.
Simply fans,
as in fans that churn the air around when we are so hot we cannot sleep.
When the air is so humid we can hardly breathe.
We turn the fan on, and soon, the sweat on our faces is wicked off.
Our underarms are no longer disreputable.
A fan is a blessing, and not such a minor one.
Symbols
Necklaces are to women what ties are to men.
They demonstrate a comfortable seriousness,
a certain amount of success,
a kind of class.
Pearls, for example, exude luxury, tidiness, and calm.
A hysterical woman never wears pearls;
she waits until she's un-hysterical.
But diamonds can be crass: don't wear too many.
And though they may not be as dignified as pearls,
necklaces made of glass can be acceptably quirky and a little to the left.
On Health
Tums will alleviate your heartburn,
aspirin can do almost everything.
We all need a medicine cabinet.
Let's thank it for being dutiful,
Not to mention downright life-saving.
Secretarial
Paperclips and clasps are cousins as are dribs and drabs,
although the latter are smaller than clips and clasps.
A clip is a great help when you want to put pages together and a clasp binds many more pages.
But sages tell us a drib is less than a dribble, and a drab — well, a drab is nothing at all and cannot be found even at the mall.
Mica
In New York City, mica made the sidewalks shine.
Shine and glitter, like Broadway shows.
There were stars above and stars below.
Mica could mesmerize,
or it could mesmerize me.
I didn't have to go to L. A. to see stars on sidewalks. We had them right at hand. Or should I say our feet.
Time
A wristwatch helps us catch the bus and get to work on time.
Somebody's got to work on time!
Nobody knows enough about it.
Maybe you can begin to understand the first hour and I'll work on the second.
A third party might give us a helping hand,
and perhaps together we'll discover that time — yes, time — is the law of the land.
Post-Its
Those little pads of paper in various colors lighten the heart of any poet about to give a reading.
That barely-there adhesive lets us mark the places where our poems inhabit the book we recently published. We love that it doesn't mark up the book. The glue comes off as easily as it goes on.
We can also write notes to ourselves on our Post-Its,
or number them in the order we'll read the poems.
We stick Post-Its in many places, on computers as well as margins, on a clock or on one's hand.
When we can't, a Post-It can.
Space
Probably you do not think of the sun and the moon as small,
but from where we live, they are relatively small.
The sun's as big as a balloon
(which isn't very big).
The moon's as big as a dime
(which, you must admit, is small)
but stars are barely specks.
So remind yourself that distance plays tricks on us.
The closer you get to the sun and the moon the more room they take up.
Fortunately, space is colossal.
Modesty
The zipper, zipped, saves your modesty,
nothing falling out of your pants.
Yet sometimes the person in the pants forgets to zip himself up, leaving on the outside what should be entirely inside.
In an age of jeans and slacks, the zipper may also pose a problem for the man's wife.
Hand in hand, they walk beneath the tulip trees,
unaware their zippers are lower than their knees.
Tin Cans
They make a mile of noise rolling down a street and even more when someone's Just Married. They help food last longer than it would without itself.
A tin can is like an elf:
helpful, but given to making noise when it oughtn't.
Novels
Fine point or bold,
narrow or thick,
the mightier pen is a Bic.
Careless
We found a beautiful glass book case and paid a thousand dollars.
Then we forgot the name of the store.
They still have our money and we don't have our bookcase.
Are we reckless?
No, just feckless.
How feckless?
Fucking feckless, that's how feckless.
The Remote
If you have a television,
you have a remote.
It's called a remote because you can turn it on from a distance, usually the distance between the television and the sofa.
But when I think of remote,
I think of someplace in Italy,
or in Bulgaria.
The South Pole is remote,
the television not so much.
Coaster
A coaster may be sweet or silly.
Either way it keeps the table dry.
Some coasters are rather frilly.
I like a coaster that does not lie.
More Fake News
Let's assume fake news is inorganic,
even though it comes from Donald Trump who is balefully organic.
Organic as French Fries.
Organic as cheeseburgers.
Organic as fat.
But fake news doesn't cause heartburn
(although it may cause a heart attack)
or indigestion. It may cause the government to chase rabbits into rabbit holes and we can only guess at what else they'll find there.
Back Channels
Such channels can go anywhere and everywhere.
They are mysterious in their activities.
They wouldn't be in "Organic"
were they not devised by humans who want to spy or carry out black ops.
Thus they are both inorganic and organic. Something like the transgendered except that the transgendered are brave and not given to colluding with China and Russia.
My Closet
I've purchased hangers with clips attached just so I can hang up my jeans, which are what I live in these days, these long unhurried days surrounded by green trees and birdsong and Beethoven sonatas.
There is now more room in the drawers in the closet.
I am impressed with myself for getting the hangers because I have very little sense of space.
Clap me on my back, because though I can do logic, spatial problems are my bête noir.
Outside from Indoors
Let's applaud windows. They let us see what is outside, the trees, the bushes, the flowers, the grass and, of course, the ground, which in the country is grass but in the city are numerous streets.
We may open the windows to breathe in the smells of fresh air or close them to say no to the stink of exhaust. We look out to dream of distance and the places we'd like to go to, and sometimes we drift into imagination, as if the imaginary may be real.
Meantime, the unicorn watches us from the backyard.
ORGANIC
High-Spirited
Breezes in trees, like teenagers,
may drape an arm around a date,
hoping for a kiss. But the breeze is fragrant with tropical fruits and airs and soon the trees are dancing like rock stars,
shaking their arms and bending and twisting all in good humor. The sudden wind ceases.
Angels Watching
A nap restores one's energy unless one's partner snores,
in which case one finds oneself awake and taking Benadryl to fall asleep again.
Still,
naps can make us feel we might be sleeping on a cloud were the angels not singing so goddamn loud.
A Simple Cold
Your throat is scratchy,
your forehead warm.
Your mother views you with alarm.
Orange juice and Chicken Noodle,
thermometer and teddy bear are her tools.
Her cool hand on your forehead makes you feel better right away.
Besides, a sick day means a day without school.
You are no fool.
New
Newborn babies, even the biggest,
are rather small.
You could probably pack twenty of them in your closet with no strain at all.
Their toes are barely there,
while eyebrows are not at all.
But their gurgles establish a sense of self,
reminding us to take them off the shelf.
Surprise
An ordinary day may be extraordinary if you want it to be.
Sit under a tree to hear the squirrels scrabbling up.
Watch the male cardinal red as daybreak.
We think we are alone and special but we are surrounded by crowds of creatures each of which is a single stitch in the longest prayer carpet ever woven.
Fiscal
Do they still make books with thick pages of paper pockets for children to save money in?
Nickels and dimes and lots of pennies taught us to be thrifty and wise and how to add and subtract.
Then came the day when we took the coins out to buy ice cream or a toy:
Pure joy.
Maturity
Buttercups grew almost everywhere.
Children held them under friends' chins to see the glow they made.
It was the opposite of shade.
We also made beautiful bracelets from stems of milkweed.
Beautiful?
Well, we thought it so.
Goldfish
Shy and small, the gold coat of the goldfish shines like a gold necklace.
No, it's not wearing a necklace.
It is a necklace.
Glory
Never reckless, the goldfinch flies judiciously, with moderation,
unless something scares it off,
and then it retreats to safer air (not ground),
all its glory soft as down.
Little Dogs
Little dogs,
not micro,
just little,
bark to defend like big dogs.
But little dogs curl up in one's lap and a big dog can't do that.
Every dog is a best friend but a little dog at day's end naps in one's lap like a child glad to be home after a day of play.
Praise for Paper
Where would we be without paper?
No libraries. No universities. No books.
Nothing to write on.
Nothing to make a paper airplane with.
Lists would vanish.
Paper money would be no more and our pockets would weigh us down with nickels and dimes and silver dollars.
We have to admit:
paper is significant.
Hosting a Dinner
Holding books that you have read and books you have yet to read,
the bookcase is a loyal friend.
It comforts you and keeps you busy,
so much so you find yourself in a tizzy,
having forgotten to prepare dinner for believers and for sinners,
and they in turn are mad at you But here's a thought:
A cookbook will get you out of trouble.
Raisins
Raisins are small delights.
A raisin is not a Lincoln or an Audi.
Do people eat them in Saudi Arabia? I don't know But I suspect so.
Excerpted from "Zip, or Micrology"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Kelly Cherry.
Excerpted by permission of Regal House Publishing, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Intro 6
Inorganic 7
Power 8
Post-Its 9
Wayfarer 10
Coaster 11
Parsimony 12
Correction 13
Résumé 14
The Remote 15
The Right to Choose 16
Symbols 17
On Health 18
Secretarial 19
Keeping One's Cool 20
Mica 21
Time 22
Space 23
Modesty 24
Novels 25
Tin Cans 26
Careless 27
The Smile 28
More Fake News 29
Back Channels 30
Fiscal 31
My Closet 32
Organic 35
High-Spirited 36
Angels Watching 37
Outside from Indoors 38
A Simple Cold 39
New 40
Surprise 41
Maturity 42
Goldfish 43
Glory 44
Praise for Paper 45
Little Dogs 46
Hosting a Dinner 47
Raisins 48
Melania's Coat 49
Love and Marriage 50
Rice 51
Shaving 52
Toothbrush 53
Blood Pressure 54
Compromise 55
Nature 56
Complicated 57
Medical 58
Beauty 59
The Importance of Food 60
Something Really Small 61
A Wetware Computer 62
Alligator in the Street 63
Cana 64
A New Generation 65
The Merry Brook 66
Perspective 67
Our Dog Again 68
Peace No. 1 69
Peace No. 2 70
Peace No. 3 71
Peace No. 4 72
Peace No. 5 73
Advice for Women 74
The Author 75
Smart Phones 76
Strings 77
Acknowledgments 78