[stylist] Writers' Division November Gathering - tonight - samples of guests poetry

[Robert Leslie Newman]

Dear STYLIST & Membership Group

RE: Aileen Murphy, samples of her poetry 

(Time for her visit with us- 7:30 PM CT, phone- (712) 432-0469, Code-
568839Pound) 

 

Here are three poems. They are all from my chapbook, which is called "There
Will Be Cats" about raising my son who has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of
autism.

 

Proverbs 13:24 

 

He who spares the rod hates his son...

 

She called to say we needed to talk

knocked on the front door with one fist

held her Bible in the other

Your three year old needs spanking

she smiled

he pushes too much

smaller children in his space

does not play well with others

I gaped, fascinated

having lived in the south for not quite a year

 

I held the door open with my body

waiting while she gathered her things

She and her husband spanked their children

she urged, finger still on a Bible verse

the book closed around it

as she hurried her purse strap over her shoulder

 

Upstairs, I spied from his doorway

as he lay, face on the floor

brio train cars rolling past his eyes

a tune coming from his chest

 

One year earlier a priest had said the same

nodding confidently, like I would accept his words

based on his profession, his position

as so many others do, as my mother had

when she spanked my child once

when we were out at a movie

 

I knew nothing 

just to not add pain to his curious world

just that he was happy alone

in his sunlit, toy-strewn room

singing alphabet songs

without others pressing into

and popping the bubble of light

around him

 

 

 

 

Intruder Drill 

 

He has not looked directly into a face

especially a teacher's face

for at least a month

 

But he examines her eyes, the lashes

then her mouth where the words came from

to see if it will confirm

or say this was untrue

 

He even waits for a smile to indicate a joke

but the mouth stays flat

 

It must be untrue--

something worse than a fire drill?

No jackhammer alarm--

just pretending that a person

wants to hurt us

and practicing how to survive

 

Fire drills are easy

you walk out the door

calmly and orderly and quickly

 

For gym class in kindergarten

Mr. Jones changed the rules of tag for him

"taggers can't be tagged"

so that no one would chase him

so that he would not feel like an explosion

was trying to get out of his chest

so that he would not run out the double doors

into the parking lot and the road

 

He asks when this will happen

if he can leave early

if he has to be there at all

 

She says she doesn't know when

that nobody can know

this makes the drill more effective

 

He pictures a person with a gun chasing him

wanting to tag him with a bullet

as he's running the fear pulls out

in front of him like a stretched out bubble

like Harry's soul getting sucked out by dementors

 

He looks around for Mr. Jones

who can change the rules for him

he would be standing calmly in his polo shirt

his khaki pants and tidy sneakers

with a whistle around his neck

 

Mr. Jones would say sternly without yelling

even turning away with confidence

that the gunman was playing by the wrong rules

that Henry is a tagger and cannot be tagged

and the killer would stop, shrug, and look for someone else

 

But instead these teachers will be hiding too

They will turn out the lights

and huddle on the floor with the kids

away from the tiny window in the door

 

None of them have whistles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brain Stations


 


one station is cartoons and movies


mainly the video show with all the accidents


wedding parties falling into lakes, dogs eating birthday cakes

cats attacked by birds, dancers losing pants 

skiers crashing into trees, bouquets shredded in ceiling fans

babies sneezing noodles, practical jokes on sleeping teenagers

squirrels caught indoors, foulmouthed parrots and toddlers

this station in full color and surround sound 

I can play forward rewind the funny parts 

again and again

 

another is music

the Beatles, Aerosmith

my sister's favorite songs on the car radio

Dad's acoustic classical guitar albums

he stops chopping vegetables

when he hears me singing Vivaldi's Spring

I say what?

Pete Seeger, Vince Guaraldi, Elvis

like my aunt's jukebox I punch in the numbers 

the arm searches and lifts up a song

always in the background 

of other stations

 

the station of voices 

is from real people talking to me

Mom, Dad, teachers, others

like a secret agent, I record them

to play back later 

brush your teeth they will rot out of your head

did you put down the toilet seat turn to page 30

time to turn out the light did you like that movie

how many freckles do you have turn off that computer

I love you Mom he's poking me wow you are getting tall

how are you can I help you do you remember me

what is twelve times twenty seven do you want more pizza 

please take a seat have a good day you are a bottomless pit 

where is your homework give me a hug get your backpack

what is your name that will be $1.60 time to get up

can you not wear that shirt

 

at night I put down my book and turn over 

music, voices, pictures funnel together 

and empty out through my breathing 

like relatives whispering in the next room

they provoke one another, interfere in each other's lives 

wonder about me out loud, gossip out static

they never sign off

 

 

Robert Leslie Newman

Personal Website-

Adjustment To Blindness And Visual impairment

http//www.thoughtprovoker.info

NFB Writers' Division, president

http://writers.nfb.org 

Chair of the NFB Communications Committee   

Nebraska Senior Division, Vice President