NOTHING SCARES ME MORE
http://www.maverickmagazine.com/articles/343/1/--------NOTHING-SCARES-ME-MORE/Page1.html
Gene Fehler
Gene Fehler teaches poetry writing through South Carolina's Artist-in-Education program. He especially enjoys reading and writing poems of shared experience. Recent publications include RATTLE, BELLOWING ARK, THE NEBRASKA REVIEW, and ELYSIAN FIELDS QUARTERLY.By Gene Fehler
Published on 11/23/2005
My orange kitten climbs a tree. Skinny
branches bend and sway. She dangles
upside down, hangs by a needle-claw of paw.
My heart blocks my throat like it did
that childhood evening I saw Suzie Dell dangle
by her knees from our school’s jungle gym,
branches bend and sway. She dangles
upside down, hangs by a needle-claw of paw.
My heart blocks my throat like it did
that childhood evening I saw Suzie Dell dangle
by her knees from our school’s jungle gym,
My orange kitten climbs a tree. Skinny
branches bend and sway. She dangles
upside down, hangs by a needle-claw of paw.
My heart blocks my throat like it did
that childhood evening I saw Suzie Dell dangle
by her knees from our school’s jungle gym,
her blue skirt falling past a tanned neck while
bare legs climbed from pink panties above
a shadowy man reaching his arms toward her.
I reach out toward my kitten, lest it fall.
Nothing scares me more
than the thought of soft and dangling things
coming to harm on hard ground beneath skinny
branches or on twilight summer playworn grasses
beneath a long ago schoolyard’s jungle gym.
Copyright © Gene Fehler, 2005. All Rights Reserved.
branches bend and sway. She dangles
upside down, hangs by a needle-claw of paw.
My heart blocks my throat like it did
that childhood evening I saw Suzie Dell dangle
by her knees from our school’s jungle gym,
her blue skirt falling past a tanned neck while
bare legs climbed from pink panties above
a shadowy man reaching his arms toward her.
I reach out toward my kitten, lest it fall.
Nothing scares me more
than the thought of soft and dangling things
coming to harm on hard ground beneath skinny
branches or on twilight summer playworn grasses
beneath a long ago schoolyard’s jungle gym.
Copyright © Gene Fehler, 2005. All Rights Reserved.