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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

50-30=20 (YEARS)

by Katherine West


There is a picnic table
There is a liter of wine
There is a pipe

There is bad spaghetti and
not enough of it
The bread is burnt
The music loud Led Zeppelin

Everyone's hair is blonde
with black roots
Everyone wears
a dirty t-shirt
big silver jewelry and
too much of it
It is Monday but
No one is at work or

protesting the war

Everyone plays
with hoola-hoops and
fire

No one gets burned

Everyone tells jokes

No one listens

Everyone tells stories Mom
with Alcohol Dementia at 80
can't remember yesterday

Everyone says
she's enlightened
with her Eternal Now

No one cries

Everyone eats ice cream

No one says "no"

Everyone dances

No one knows
my name


Katherine West is a poet presently living in northern Colorado and teaching Creative Writing at the local community college, museum, and Naropa University, which is in nearby Boulder, Colorado.