* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * poems from _GEO FRICTIONS_ * * * * by SHERRY RENIKER * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * THREE DAYS Three days we have, Elaine & I, for camping in Pennsylvania. We have one book, some kippers & some eggs, a tent, two knives, & lots of rope. Into the piney furnace we go -- my love astounds me! Elaine, your face lit up from the fire of wet wood we gathered could be any face. But it is you, my friend, who I have never seen so well before. And do you know that I am anyone, anyone as well as myself, & as a good? No better these others than us, & no worse, though they have lost themselves in cement latrines, while we pee here together, here in Pennsylvania, in the forest, the man in the moon (who could be any man) showing us his face. 1967 *********************************************** TO FRIENDS Love me better than you are clever /I feel these distances though spring will come whatever, even to us ************************************************* THE CONNECTION you come like honeysuckle in the spring, she sd. it is these natural things we connect/ that sometimes your face is a spider web I walk into/ the unexpected -ness, & more ************************************* FOOTPEDAL SHOES BLUES (The Gypsy Was Gone) 1 Somebody got the blues Somebody is me I had 'em since I went to Chicago, baby, 1953 2 Oh, I'm a driver of the Open Road. Sail down these roads! Close to nature, Close to home -- flying Michigan's colors. My friends are Truckers here; not too many waves from cars -- just kids sometimes, a power salute or two. Yeah, I'm a Burnt Orange Nova on the only Road - from the curves of the ring in my western ear till my toenails curl in my twenty-sixth year! Gypsy Driver of the Road My Stove-Bolt Six has went, gone __goed !__ 3 Left m love n I don't care Left m love n I don't care Left m love n I don't care Right on red this morning 4 Daddy and I used to sing as we drove __Now I used to think that I was cool__ Give me land, lots of land __Runnin' around on fossil fuel__ Under starry skies above __Until I saw what I was doin'_ Don't fence me in __Was drivin down the road to ruin__ Don't fence me in 5 Colorado rocks Kansas rolls I want my arms around you ********************************************************** OKU-SAN Bitter the incense twenty years burned her child- denied-life, denied a place at the family site until mother-in-law's death ********************************************** NEAR CHINO autumn dawn a gallery of statues in the birch wood gazing at the waterfall a twig snaps *********************************************** RIVALS When I awoke a dresser stood before me. Each drawer opened like an eye, but none of the clothes fit. The mirrors were empty. Without blinking I hid in the closet. How I longed for a basic black! Discovering, __ah ha__, the false bottom, I entered your closet without shame. Your closet. I thought I heard you weeping. Instead, it was the shadow you left on the shade. I rolled it up and put it under my arm. Don't expect to hear from me again. ************************************************ STOP the whole thing. Freeze- frame it. Take her out-- that figure-- lose the background. Now, tell me, why is she still burning? ************************************************* CHICAGO, BYE BYE 1. feet, white bottoms you hid, evidence of her, Punta Gorda beach run-- tar that stuck stuck. 2. what'd been clean? the white starcht shirt? stolid Pittsburgh, the perfect cheese blintz, her Skinner: blind alley or your way out? 3. that onion pride was peeling . . . your Belmondo charm-- first love I ever slugged-- struck a vein, struck pig iron, Chicago bye bye. ********************************************* PACIFIC CALL my today is your tomorrow & crackling wire that rain? crack the blind lightning close same moon same ring of fire ********************************************** ################################################### # # # GEO FRICTIONS was published by Open Meeting # # Books, Kenosha, Wisconsin. Copyright (C) 1990 # # by Sherry Jo Reniker. # # # ###################################################