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Lyn is an accomplished poet, responsible for over 100 books, including The Licorice Daughter: My Year With Ruffian, which won the Texas Review Award. Winner of the Jack Kerouac Award, among others, she's been Poet In Residence at a few colleges, taught writing courses, and has been editor for four women writers anthologies. |
© 2008 Lyn Lifshin
DEER ON THE TRACKS, LEAPING, RUNNING IN TERROR
On the tracks and
back on the platform,
dazed. They cleared the
platform several
times, single tracked.
The deer, the blood,
the slow trains
trying not to hurt him.
No one could drive
him away. Each attempt
failed. A bullet,
Metro police said,
they had no choice
FOR MORE THAN FOUR HOURS
blood leaping,
the deer, it
was wounded,
skimming the
metro tracks,
was in pain,
the leaves
turned red, the
world the deer
owned turned,
a swirl, until
with one
shot it
was gone
MAYBE FAR FROM THE TRAIN
something, a wild
cat, barbwire
caught a leg, a
shout and the
deer was dancing
the wildest mambo
on the platform,
off the platform.
Clouds wild as
the mist from
steam engines,
pain gnawing,
the sun moving
higher. People
on the platform,
the last frame
before the shot
STRESS MAKES BIRDS MORE DARING
When I read of these birds, bird birds,
I don't mean chicks, and how the higher
the stress hormone, the more bold they
seem not scared or retiring, not wanting
to stay in the leaves, curl deeper into some
old nest I think how seconds ago, with metro
doors closing, I made a dart in tho the
warnings say "stand back from the trains,"
say "unlike elevators, these doors don't
re-open." Was it stress? Have you gulped
what you might not have on a day more calm,
a laid back day? Swallowed as much vodka
or men that were on the table? Is this why
some stay with the
ones who beat them up?
Is it the adrenalin or corticosterone pulsing
thru me that let me drive out into the night
for a voice on the phone I knew was not a
warm cove soon after my ex left? You think
flaming out in a micro mini dress, diaphragm
in my pocket, bottles of pills came from
confidence? Have you ever done what you
never thought you could after something
terrible happened? Was something in you
starved as birds that risk new environments
for food? Did you think it came from being
brave?
All work is property of Lyn Lifshin.
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