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Little Green Thing
by
Tamara Madison


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Like a tiny armored vehicle, you rove
the hay-colored field of my coffee table
bedraggled little green thing, no one
can tell me your name but your bright
copper eye startles and repels me
as I watch you climb into my milk
and I take you with the cup, leave you
outside where it is newly spring
and the air is cold. At first
I don't understand that the case
you drag behind you like an empty
bullet shell is the place where
you were born just now, that the bags
you carry oddly furled at your sides
are lacy green wings, as new and wobbly
as your awkward young self, that soon
will open and bear you away;
you will know exactly where to go
right then, without even a thought
and I'll go back to my labyrinth
of could be, what if, and was.
 
From Wild Domestic (Pearl Editions, 2011).
Used here with the author's permission.

Tamara Madison teaches English and French at a public high school in Los Angeles. Raised on a citrus farm in the California desert, Tamara's life has taken her many places, including Europe and the former Soviet Union, where she spent 15 months in the 1970s). A swimmer and dog lover, Tamara says, "All I ever wanted to do with my life was write, and I mostly write poetry because it suits my lifestyle; I like the way one can say so much in the economical space of a poem."

 


Post New Comment:
Rogers:
It's a winner, Tamara!
Posted 03/29/2013 03:19 PM
debrabruce:
I love it--thank you.
Posted 03/28/2013 04:36 PM
paradea:
Really like this!
Posted 03/28/2013 08:46 AM
Sglittle:
Is this a Lacewing? We don't have them in IN but I always enjoy your clever perspectives!
Posted 03/28/2013 08:15 AM
lincolnhartford:
Like a baby finding the nipple, or a poet finding the right word? We humans know just enough to say something beautiful about that which already is.
Posted 03/28/2013 08:12 AM
TheSilverOne:
Beautiful! Small incident creating metaphor.
Posted 03/28/2013 07:30 AM
mimi:
delicious!
Posted 03/28/2013 07:15 AM
phebe.davidson@gmail.com:
I really love this poem---!
Posted 03/28/2013 06:27 AM


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