Grit in the Gears

I am the grit in the gears, the missing bolt, I am the poker of sticks into spokes. I like to know how things work, but sometimes when I take them apart and rebuild them, I have a few pieces left over. I am a man, so I tend to leave reading the instructions until after it goes wrong. And like all men I have a comprehensive mental map of the world and never need to ask directions. I never get lost, only sometimes I'm late, or end up in the wrong place entirely. It's what we do.

Monday, 5 December 2011

The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog
(Alicia Ostriker)

To be blessed
said the old woman
is to live and work
so hard
God's love
washes right through you
like milk through a cow

To be blessed
said the dark red tulip
is to knock their eyes out
with the slug of lust
implied by
your up-ended skirt

To be blessed
said the dog
is to have a pinch
of God
inside you
and all the other
dogs can smell it

1 comment:

red dirt girl5 December 2011 at 18:53
I'm not sure that I would wish to be blessed like the old woman. Does milk really wash through a cow?? Isn't the vigorous squeezing of teats involved in the production of such creamery?? ouch.

I do love the red tulip's blessing: and doesn't she know it as she flips up her red skirt and our hearts fill with lust-filled longings ...

I do not think my dogs are blessed. I smell them nightly and, frankly, they stink! Maybe this explains the ritual sniffing of rear ends between dogs.

xxx
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