Two Poems from the 90’s

It’s Thursday, and that means it’s another Random day. Today, we’re going to have a couple of poems I wrote in the 90’s. The first is called “Gypsy Bell,” written in Fort Kent, Maine, during the initial love affair I had with poetry. The second is called “Calliope and I” and was written in Seattle, Washington, not long after I moved there.

Despite their being poetry, one of them still manages to involve people sitting at a table and drinking coffee. God help me, I need a new scene.

*** *** ***

Gypsy Bell
(April, 1992)

On a satin string
I tinkle the bell
Of silver and laugh.
Its high pitched ring
Is a message left for me.
No one else can hear the words.
She meant it for my ears.
So far away
I ring a bell.

*** *** ***

Calliope and I
(October, 1994)

Calliope and I
had coffee at the Still Life.
I paid with half-dollars–
heavy bright Kennedys
that get you a look
almost every time.
We talked John Fowles,
she and I
and sat outdoors beneath the streetlight.

I glanced inside
during a rather long pause
while I recovered from Seattle French Roast.
I saw a brown haired girl
dressed like a beatnik
sitting with a lawyer
looking outside
at me.

We looked a little too long.
“She’s my daughter,”
Calliope said
with a little silver laugh.
“Eurydice?” I asked
turning away from the girl
and blushing ever so slightly.
“Eurydice’s dead.”
The words were flat,
so I looked into my cup
and she and I just sat there,
quiet for a while,
before I brought up my new short story
and hoped for Inspiration.

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