By Shirley Segev
© Shirley Segev
Permission is given hereby to all who want to use these poems personally for their enjoyment and/or share them freely with others: verbally, in writing, online, or otherwise, by copying them without making any changes, and as long as they do not receive any payment in return.
Contact: shirley.segev@sympatico.ca
I am a daughter of the earth
the soil that gets under my nails
is secretly to me the coolest hue
I know it is to you a clumsy clue
to my neglect
of all the glitter I respect
so much.
Its stubbornness, its silent dirt
sticks to my insides' touch.
Can I have the other,
the coat I covet, too?
yes, she said, you could hide it
underneath the pink,
I won't tell a soul, she winked.
If there is one thing that makes my day
it's you calling "hi mom "
then and there I'm smiling, beaming, smirching
with a clown's delight
"I'm fine are you O.K. ", we say,
and pronto, after your "bye love you "
my heart jumps all over
like a fool,
Boy, can life be cool.
When you said I'm naïve,
what did you mean,
you know,
like in stupid, or slow,
or not wanting to
face reality head-on,
did you want to save me?
Or did you mean
trusting, believing,
taking chances,
in the face of
stacked choices,
you know, nice?
I choose the harsh eye,
it has more possibilities
its sweet piercing spear,
you know,
sharper.