Ghosting – The New Way to Let Go
A book in every port
written in languages from the Tower of Babel –
a chronicle of days or moments
mining the gold or the magic feather
during the time of the plague
everyone wants to forget.
The salt water of your tears
mixed with rain, filled the pool
on the boat that gets you nowhere,
an argument in every port
after the compass walked off the plank
leaving everyone wondering
whether time really exists
and which people fell off.
A lover with a happy ending
might be a lie
in a room where the dancers
wear transparent clothes
with trap doors
where hands can go,
leaving you wondering if
life is a boat
that gets you to the point of no return.
Meanwhile, Jacqueline DuPres
is playing a concerto at Carnegie Hall –
in a cellophane dress.
Everyone wants to pretend
it didn’t happen.
Diane Frank is author of eight books of poems, three novels, and a photo memoir of her 400 mile trek in the Nepal Himalayas. She is also Chief Editor of Blue Light Press. While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems won the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry. Diane plays cello with the College of Marin Symphony Orchestra. She teaches poetry, flash fiction and memoir workshops at San Francisco State University and Dominican University. Her first novel, Blackberries in the Dream House, received the Chelson Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Website: dianefrank.com/
A book in every port
written in languages from the Tower of Babel –
a chronicle of days or moments
mining the gold or the magic feather
during the time of the plague
everyone wants to forget.
The salt water of your tears
mixed with rain, filled the pool
on the boat that gets you nowhere,
an argument in every port
after the compass walked off the plank
leaving everyone wondering
whether time really exists
and which people fell off.
A lover with a happy ending
might be a lie
in a room where the dancers
wear transparent clothes
with trap doors
where hands can go,
leaving you wondering if
life is a boat
that gets you to the point of no return.
Meanwhile, Jacqueline DuPres
is playing a concerto at Carnegie Hall –
in a cellophane dress.
Everyone wants to pretend
it didn’t happen.
Diane Frank is author of eight books of poems, three novels, and a photo memoir of her 400 mile trek in the Nepal Himalayas. She is also Chief Editor of Blue Light Press. While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems won the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry. Diane plays cello with the College of Marin Symphony Orchestra. She teaches poetry, flash fiction and memoir workshops at San Francisco State University and Dominican University. Her first novel, Blackberries in the Dream House, received the Chelson Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Website: dianefrank.com/
