Dawn Pendergast
4 poems
**
Someone Has to Know
O mister darcy, master of silence, my mist-
er in the middle of my middle age
I say darcy and you say nothing
in the midst of your house, your linens,
china and statuettes on the table
of my conceits of my rank
and winsome mouth O darcy all wither
misters ere or ire, o darcy
o my, o mister d
**
School Poem
for Misty
one placing one pumping
one foot perling & lace
on the rim of a grey sea
................grey sea
................grey sea
................grey sea
................grey sea
................grey sea
*
There is a page of fish
swimming in place
and you are drawing
something toward you.
It is like a carpet
around your head. Its faintness
ending up on you rapids, rapids
& I am in
a tent like this.
*
Seriously the outline
of your face. See a hole
in the pages of fish sideways.
My speaker, she does not
know whom to float to.
This whole Substitution
in the lopped-off night.
These stars, I want to say,
sort of leopard fish
with silver eyes, w/ no
observable blood.
*
Thin is beside your bed
in orange and gold links.
I have to hold on to say
the pages are so thin.
Your purse braided
into flowers & wishing nose
is pins. Pins in the water
t - t - t - t - t - t - t - t - t - t
waffling the water down
the room.
*
Your place is in a stone
of water - A week, stone.
I call & do not call to you across
little brown & white rivers.
Call and no, running along
the edges of the state. Your tape
& erasers, your hands in schools.
I can't hear how many, how long-
Who in a skirt makes time
in the doorway. Outline
flexed in place.
*
Each step in our bodies up: the each
& each up us in yellow pieces
of flowers, yellow wigs,
in lines out and in blinking
take my turn out of me
take my turn out
**
Very Bunny Cheap, Cheap
bunny duds found
soaking wet with what
on the corner of fifth
and seven-enth, lo the
turnpike, two hops
by the way of New
Hampshire briars, bushes
and folkart tolstoy replica
figurines. Knitting them
in a knot at noon, see you
there, there punk.
**
Purchasing Power
My wife is a fraud. A robot controls her. I tell her a joke and the robot moves her mouth—it sounds like laughter. She brings me a cup of milk and I say “thanks.” Her robot says “you’re welcome.” Her robot cooks eggs for breakfast. The eggs aren’t real—I don’t want to eat them. Her robot makes me eat. I say “those were good eggs.” She says “thanks.”
**
return to sawbuck 1.8
**
Dawn Pendergast lives in Tucson AZ where she is a member of POG poetry collective. You can find more work at Alice Blue, Dusie, Coconut and her website www.whatbirdsgiveup.com.
**
Someone Has to Know
O mister darcy, master of silence, my mist-
er in the middle of my middle age
I say darcy and you say nothing
in the midst of your house, your linens,
china and statuettes on the table
of my conceits of my rank
and winsome mouth O darcy all wither
misters ere or ire, o darcy
o my, o mister d
**
School Poem
for Misty
one placing one pumping
one foot perling & lace
on the rim of a grey sea
................grey sea
................grey sea
................grey sea
................grey sea
................grey sea
*
There is a page of fish
swimming in place
and you are drawing
something toward you.
It is like a carpet
around your head. Its faintness
ending up on you rapids, rapids
& I am in
a tent like this.
*
Seriously the outline
of your face. See a hole
in the pages of fish sideways.
My speaker, she does not
know whom to float to.
This whole Substitution
in the lopped-off night.
These stars, I want to say,
sort of leopard fish
with silver eyes, w/ no
observable blood.
*
Thin is beside your bed
in orange and gold links.
I have to hold on to say
the pages are so thin.
Your purse braided
into flowers & wishing nose
is pins. Pins in the water
t - t - t - t - t - t - t - t - t - t
waffling the water down
the room.
*
Your place is in a stone
of water - A week, stone.
I call & do not call to you across
little brown & white rivers.
Call and no, running along
the edges of the state. Your tape
& erasers, your hands in schools.
I can't hear how many, how long-
Who in a skirt makes time
in the doorway. Outline
flexed in place.
*
Each step in our bodies up: the each
& each up us in yellow pieces
of flowers, yellow wigs,
in lines out and in blinking
take my turn out of me
take my turn out
**
Very Bunny Cheap, Cheap
bunny duds found
soaking wet with what
on the corner of fifth
and seven-enth, lo the
turnpike, two hops
by the way of New
Hampshire briars, bushes
and folkart tolstoy replica
figurines. Knitting them
in a knot at noon, see you
there, there punk.
**
Purchasing Power
My wife is a fraud. A robot controls her. I tell her a joke and the robot moves her mouth—it sounds like laughter. She brings me a cup of milk and I say “thanks.” Her robot says “you’re welcome.” Her robot cooks eggs for breakfast. The eggs aren’t real—I don’t want to eat them. Her robot makes me eat. I say “those were good eggs.” She says “thanks.”
**
return to sawbuck 1.8
**
Dawn Pendergast lives in Tucson AZ where she is a member of POG poetry collective. You can find more work at Alice Blue, Dusie, Coconut and her website www.whatbirdsgiveup.com.
