Words of Wisdom/ A Bumper Year for Mushrooms

Words of Wisdom / A Bumper Year for Mushrooms
For Robyn

“I’m tired”, I cried. “I need a husband.
Someone to take out the trash,
dry the dishes after dinner,
and help with the dirty laundry.”

“I’ve got one”, she told me.
“One that I love.
And I’ve got twice as much laundry,
twice as many dirty dishes piled up,
and he never remembers to take out the trash.”

“I can’t stand any more rain!” I said.
“Well, there has been a lot of rain this September.”
My sister said.
“But, it’s been a bumper year for mushrooms.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

When spring came again,
I asked,

“How can I bear to smell the rain on warm pavement,
watch the Horse-Chestnut stretch,
and see your red Geraniums bloom in their flower-box?”

But, the rain perfumed a different world this year,
the Horse-Chestnut doesn’t look like the same tree,
and you didn't plant any red Geraniums.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Burned

Burned

I tried so hard to be your friend,
but you kept me at bay.
When you found 'twas me you loved;
That’s when you ran away.

I had a mind with acumen,
but I lacked a certain look.
I had a heart that loved you;
That’s what you forsook.

I don’t know how to integrate
this lesson that I’ve learned;
To love a shallow minded man
will only get you burned.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Killing Time

Killing Time

Time stretches out long past defining.
Clocks, dials, and sands run out

as Winter’s sun is bit by bit declining.

With dwindling work-years waning,
love and death lie in their beds alone,
life’s force now slowly draining.

Time takes in trade a man’s toolbox
then in turn presents to him with ceremony
a futile golden watch.

Each and every second counted;
each moment left to sit; a vacant stare

until such time as death can be surmounted.


Lindsay Riggs Brown

The Changing Tide

The Changing Tide

I’ve swum out too far.
You paddle
in the shallows
oblivious to my peril.

Muscles aching,
burning breath
I stretch my capacity to reach
an unfamiliar shore.

Emerging,
dripping sea water,
I shield my eyes with my hand,
and scan the empty shore I’ve left behind.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Tired

Tired

So tired
of apologizing
for being,
for taking
up your space.

Fuck you
for being
so selfish.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Nothing

Nothing

shimmering in
all your glossiness
weightless
insubstantial
no pain
no gain

hovering on
another’s vapor
vapidly
rapidly
never settling

you are doomed
my darling
to an eternal hunt
for nothing

an empty bubble
a big fat zero
nothing lost
nothing gained

Lindsay Riggs Brown