Katie Daley

A Break in the Weather

After you left
it rained for weeks
There was that war we started
that never really ended
mud
epidemics
leaders who grabbed their crotches
and called each other names

We were in trouble
it was true
but that had always been the case

And now the day
had crowbarred an opening through
the downpour
and let itself in

Everything was visible here
even foolishness
the mountain stream clear as heartbreak
Though when I dove deep
I wasn't sure if it was a law of physics
or desire that kept lifting me

In the distance
I knew there were explosions and betrayals
but all I could remember was the sun
warming the granite boulder I lay on

A dragon fly zagged out from my solar plexus
The stream bent time
and carried it out of sight

I wanted everything in this world
including disaster
and loneliness
Every loss was astounding
and I wanted to know each one
even paradise
by heart

© 2003 Katie Daley

KATIE DALEY is a performance poet living in the wilderness of Cleveland and currently consumed by trying to weave the bizarre with the mundane, the political with the personal, the agony with the ecstasy.

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