Linda King


a woman who looks exactly like you


drags her old self behind her on a leash

has no expectations but is thinking it over

slips through every open door

believing there is somewhere else to go

clings to romance from another season

misses the sun from her past

still plants the pink geraniums

wanders foreign coastlines in the zero hour

wears black to every poetry reading

seduces all the orphan poets    

persuades them to rename the oceans



among the misfits and the glitter train wrecks
 
some days you forget
that madness is the compromise
in the constant street bazaar of your life
among the misfits    the mannequins
and the glitter train wrecks

the flower children have faded
their paper-doll family torn apart
and it looks like someone has trashed
the Barbie Doll Dream House

like most crimes
there is little evidence
just a direct hit of reality

a rum&coke crazy tale
too often told    one that drifts
between memory and truth

like that momentary lapse
between lightning
and thunder

Linda King is the author of five poetry collections including Reality Wayfarers (Shoe Music Press, 2015) and antibodies in the alphabet (BlazeVOX Books, 2019). Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals, has been nominated for Best of the Net and also for the Pushcart Prize. King lives and writes on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada.

 
 

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