Monday, April 23, 2007

Ladybug Soul

I swallowed her tonight
She went down whole
Now I'm ladybug
to the core of my soul

My helmet protected my hair
My glasses fought for my eyes
My hairs hid my nose in a weave
But my jaw gaped wide

I came on at seventeen
She had to be doing twenty
The tailwind gave her a boost
She found a new place to roost

Then at home
I spied my tulips
freshly-opened today
Instead of flowers
I saw a tomb
and knew there was only one way.

My two lips I did part
and relinquished her to her grave.
She now has a happy heart
in that sunlit yellow place.





As for me
I'll remember her.
For this clinging
bitter taste.

8 comments:

The Fool said...

TT,
She never saw it coming. If I do the math...
Terminal velocity 17 X 20 = Smush!

One might say, what a way to go....

M-

PS: How long was she in your teeth before you.... put her to rest?

RunBubbaRun said...

I always think of it as protein..

At least that is more pleasant than swallowing something else.

Nice riding.. I think that is what you were doing..

Hollyfish said...

um, EW?

Dances with Corgis said...

You should have gone for broke with a pantoum or a sestina. Maybe some trochaic hexameter and a few nice nice Elegiac couplets. :)

MJ said...

Better a lady bug than a bee or a wasp or something that stings on the way down.

It happens to the best of us! ;)

qcmier said...

Triathlete, Teacher, Ironman, Farm Kid, Poet.

Unknown said...

yum....ladybugs....

Anne said...

Amazingly, I should be repulsed by the thought of a ladybug swishing around the mouth, but you write with such eloquence, that I'm indeed thinking it was more bittersweet than bitter.