Joe Balaz and Mary Ellen Derwis


Mary Ellen Derwis                           

CATCHING JAVELINS                                                                                                            



Debating wit her 
is like catching javelins

but I do appreciate da energy
coming at me.

Wun timid person she is not
and dat suits me just fine.


I tink I’ll send wun shot
ovah her bow

just to let her know 
dat I’m still breathing.


In da past
she accused me of carpet bombing.

I no deny dis.

I have even been known
to scream like wun banshee

and bite da heads off of rats
to get results.


Wun pensive sensitive approach
wuzn’t always my forte.


In da old arms race dat followed
we both went nuclear

and da big mushroom clouds
have taken awhile to disappear.


Dat we can even be friends today
is wun mystery in itself.

Maybe all of dat poetic radioactivity                                                                                           
mutated our brains

and gave us wun sense of wisdom.


Possibly

but it’s not like 
we stay chanting mystic oms

or sharing scriptures wit each adah.


At dis morning’s 
coffee shop get togettah 

I notice dat she’s wearing 

wun double-sided holster 
just like I am

wit two loaded six-shooters
ready foa action.


Deah might be
 
anadah OK Corral hullabaloo
wit wun lively word exchange

but at least da bullets not lethal.


Nowadays we’re able
 
to just let ‘um bounce off 
of our chests

like two supah heroes

who have somehow managed 
to live wit da kryptonite.                                                                                                                                                                       


                                                                                                                                                                              Many Moons Ago 

YOU AND I



I’m out of da blue Pacific

and you from da land 
of da cougar’s tail

lake entwined wit ocean

hammer in creation
and  inspiration to nail.


Wit wun lucky strut
or disastrous gallop

I see you 
through da panoramic blinds

curtain on my ideas, 
spotlight on your stage,

from time to time 
in dese exhilarating times.


Broken smile
and magnificent frown

in competition all da while

seemingly advancing
da vanguard is receding

to question every inch
and every mile.


We float in clouds of plenty
we sink in rivahs of rain

glorious suffering
and mournful joy

dished out in handfuls
of stratospheric pain.


Da speed is cosmic 
and far reaching

da internal travel
is turtled and slow

sun in da winter,
moon in da summer,

footprints in sand 
and impressions in snow.


Da leaves fall
and we spring forth

reasons seasoned to change

rearranged in motion
wit wun silent commotion

da destination
attainable and in range.


Still we rumble and crumble
tossed and torn like fragile kites

above da ground
and beneath da sky

lightning flashing,
and thundah clashing,

wun swirl of complexity
you and I.

Mary Ellen Derwis is a photo artist, painter, and video film artist. Some of her photo art is archived at the Avant-garde Writing Collection at Ohio State University. She is coauthor, with Joe Balaz, of Expanding the Radius, a book of visual poetry and photo art published by Otoliths Press. Derwis lives in Haymarket, Virginia.

 
 

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