short can be the best

hello earth
i am your daughter
and i thank you for my life

endless tears
within me slaughter
my womb shields a painful knife

what i fear
i dare not offer
what i feel is much too real

a tumor grows
in lonely coffer
time that’s left is time i’ll steal

Copyright: Lynn Marie Sager 2007

Momma's Girl

Momma’s girl has gone away
Momma’s girl was never real
Momma called me yesterday
Tried to tell me how I feel

Momma’s girl tries to be good
Momma’s girl will never do
Momma taught me all she could
About seeing my life through

Momma’s girl learned many answers
To questions never asked
Like how to deal with cancers
Momma’s reading from the past

Momma’s girl lives life alone
In a world Momma can’t see
Momma’s girl is not the clone
Momma hoped that she would be

Momma said, “Since you can’t spell,
writing’s nothing you can do.”
Yet I’ve filled my life with poems
Still what’s poetry to you.

Momma said, “You don’t want that.”
Without granting that I might
That’s when I just stopped sharing
I did not want to fight.

Momma doesn’t like my truth
So all that’s left are lies
That’s why I seldom call her
Still a daughter often tries.

Dear Momma, we’re all dying
Regrets I have but few
The only thing I’ve left to share
Is the me you never knew.

Copyright: Lynn Marie Sager 2007

Interruptions

I told
you that
I hate
phones. They
inter

rupt, and
I hate
inter
rupting
lives; most

ly be
cause I
don’t in
terrupt
my own

life when
ever
possi
ble. An
abrupt

change, since
I’ve come
to wel
come your
inter

ruptions.
So if
you want
to call,
I'm here.

Copyright: Lynn Marie Sager 2007

Cracked Up

Imagination isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be
Got an image in my mind that I don’t want to see
The sky is bleeding red
Children fighting over bread
Life’s unraveling like thread
A fish just washed up dead

Civilization isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be
It somehow tamed the earth but still ignores what I see
One wave swallowing sand
simply engulfed the land
drowning all that could stand
killed three hundred-thousand

Our evolution isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be
It somehow formed a species that refuses to see
Weather sends us small clues
Frogs grow limbs they can’t use
Birds develop fresh flues
splashed all across the news

Accumulation isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be
May keep you feeling safe, but might block what you can see
A dozen hurricanes
brought homicidal rains;
then it finally drains
leaving lonely remains

Politicizing isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be
While each answer ends, questions build worlds for all to see
Stupidity’s suggested
fear is soon injected
hate then resurrected
nations get digested

Democratizing isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be
The world is much more complex than many fools can see
We cling to several threads
Dream we’ll be the one who weds
Yet children dragged from beds
witness chopping off of heads

Our legislation isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be
Might lock a danger up; cannot help a man to see
Just throw them behind bars.
They’re only starting wars,
and opening old scars.
Can’t be no fault of yours.

More education isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be
It may teach people words, but still won't teach them to see
Adrift without an ark
Oil fields in north park
And riots after dark
All waiting for a spark

Recrimination isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be
May help some feel better but can't help a man to see
The season’s heating up
water’s stolen for some crop;
while men beg for one drop
of this madness to stop

Our resignation isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be
Giving up ourselves will not help someone else to see
A sign that no one heeds
all chanting their own creeds;
we fight about who leads
while the earth softly bleeds.

Copywrite: Copyright Lynn Marie Sager 2007

Reckless Rhyme

Happily making love with words all weekend long
Lazy way of saying you complete a song
Now I’m back at work where I must earn my dime
Still my thoughts keep pouring out in reckless rhyme

Laid myself out naked with each slender word
Wondering who around me might have also heard
These words they fall like rain; I don’t even choose
I can understand why bards invoke their muse

Never heard a voice within me so profound
Got to write these words down cause I like their sound
Babble I hear each day, cluttering my mind
Most words interrupt the thoughts I seek to find

Silence is a gift you only give yourself
Many lives are busy counting up their wealth
Subtle hints don’t work on minds that never hear
Block out all their noise and pay attention dear.

Copyright: Lynn Marie Sager 2007

Fairy Tales

Buried love in a pirate’s chest
and then I lost the map.
Not to worry, a heart keeps best
locked deep inside a trap.
Then comes along a lad so fine
he flies across the gap.
Starts planting seeds inside my mind
of tantalizing nap.

Erased my name from cupid’s mail
allergic to his laugh.
Learned to sail a life not stale
and steer a lovely craft.
Then comes along a song so strong
I somehow catch a draft.
My senses keep on steering wrong
with every breeze turned daft.

Sealed my soul in Rapunzel’s tower
cementing up my pain.
Cut my hair in that same hour
with hopes of living sane.
Then comes along a lilting voice
that questions all past gain.
Quite suddenly I crave a choice
called dancing in the rain.

Once glimpsed my mind in Merlin’s cave
not sure of what I saw.
Ten thousand years I’ve lived a knave
assuming life on draw.
Then comes along a chance to sing
with one who teaches awe,
connecting me while wandering
through sounds not needing law.

I safely packed Pandora’s Box
and said my last good-byes;
I sought the truth of wily fox
and held myself most wise.
Then comes along a notion bold
sends quiver through my thighs,
and melts away Pandora’s gold
by seeing to her sighs.

While shinning up Aladdin’s lamp,
I found my way inside
and pitched myself a comfy camp
to lay the past aside.
Then comes along a sultry tone
awakens time denied;
pierced right in two my heart of stone
before it softly died.

Shred my invite to Cinder’s Ball
not hunting for a Prince;
I needed rags to wash the wall,
so tore my gown of chintz.
Then comes along a courtly call
divining my heart’s wince
blows right on through my weathered hall
and steals away my bliss.

Wrapped up my grin in Tin Man’s skin;
stopped delving darkened mines.
I put away what some call sin
to read between the lines.
Then comes along a touch so new
it questions all past signs.
Just how his touch has broken through
is haunting thought that binds.

Copyright: Lynn Marie Sager 2007

What I have learned

A poem captures time forever by
binding into sound a moment of life
so precious, you refuse to let it die,
as much loveliness dies encased by grief.

Each poem starts life as a pouring out
of thought, which soon must be crafted into
rhyme; often taking a sinuous route
that not even the poet can see through.

Poems are snapshots in sound; meanings caught
up by a mind that somehow sets them free.
This discipline of life, not often sought,
has the power to let each moment be.

When you send a sound out to chase itself,
it can return carrying surprising wealth.

Copyright: Lynn Marie Sager 2007