Empty Vessel

Baby sank out of me.
Left this vessel
a
loose sack
Of skin and fingernails.

Body wasted.
Ruined.
Set aside to serve the next generation.

Oh.
What.
A.
Miracle.
Birth. is.

This one will grow up to be something great.

All that purple skin you will soon forget when you look into her eyes
for the first time.

But.
Every morning.
Every bath.
With.
Every.
Single.
change of clothes.
I am reminded
This vessel
has
served
Its purpose.

Mankind will continue on.
All
because of me.
The earth overpopulated.

You’re a mother now, dear.

You can’t do that.
Your life is changed now.
You don’t live just for you
Anymore.
Oh, when you look into her eyes for the first time

It won’t matter.

You live to serve her now.

They tell me. Over. And. Over.
And
Over.

No one cares
If you have stretch marks
Dear.

The Baby is all that matters now.

--Lindsay Strait 10-6-2010

"Weedy Bop"

Smiles and Grins
At Every Single Sighting of Him
Because
You See
The toes of This Girl
He makes Them curl
Every time He kisses Her Pearl
And when She comes
All over His Tongue
It tastes like His
Caribbean Rum
And Oh This Man
She loves Him so
And
Even Though
He stays in The Cut
Swagger His walk
Every time That He goes
She runs back to Him
Every time that He calls
Sweet Dick
Weedy Bop
With the Candy Bar Balls

Madonna in Progress

Flawed

On my

Charcoaled Pedestal

I am

Measured

Scribbled

Into

Newsprint Booklets

Never to be

Exhibited

Never to be

Revisited

Me

In True Form

Just a

Super Exhibitionist

Carefully shade me into gray

Forever and Always

I will Remain

Your Work

In Progress

Short Lived Life Expectancy

Boxed me In

The Doctor did

Told me

I Could Never Live

Not like this

Just

Not

Like

This

Self Preservation

Pick Pick Pick Until the nail bleeds Tear away the cuticle Bite the nails down Chew on the fingers That taste of nicotine Down Down Down Goes the enamel of the teeth Pick and Scratch
Until yellow fingertips Color themselves red Taste of blood Instead Instead

Instead of

Gnaw through damaged nails Just to get to Bite off the callus Chew the scaled skin between chipped teeth Grind fidgeting fingers Down into the wrist Repeat Do this Do this Do This

Do it Again

Bloody Scabs
Instead of hands
Make it
Impossible
To pick up

Fishbowl Mind

Fishbowl eyes

Stuck
On the rash
On the arm

It is
Redder
and
Redder

Does not
Cease
to grow

It climbs
limb
By
limb

Ever present
It eats away

First
It gets at the skin

Just a sink hole
Fishbowl Eyes

Seeing
Only
The
Inevitable

Void of Solutions
Harping

What’s outside?
What’s up there?

Surely
That fishbowl
Has an Opening
But

Fishbowl eyes

Can only see

From

Left
To
Right

Side
To
Side

Red Woman

Oh,
She lies, She lies,
She lies All the time, And
All the time, They cry, cry, cry,

Please, Please, Please,
Don’t lie to me.

Please, Please, Please,
Just be Mine.

And

Even though
They know, They know
They try their best to turn their head
Blind their eyes
Push up their nose
But
Blind eyes fail to quiet the mind
And still that whisper continues on
Continues to chime
Rings in their ear with that
Same old line

Oh,
She lies, She lies, She lies.

But
They know They know
Oh,
I know
That they know when I lie

And

Anymore
I don’t
Even bother to hide

Anymore
I Just
Don’t Even Try

But

Little did they Know that
Though
There were many
I loved them all
And
Little did they Know
That
Though
There were many
I loved them all--

I loved them all Full and Whole.