The Theory of Green

by Janet I. Buck

After smoke has smothered grass,
beams turn crossbones
trimmed by skulls,
I wonder if we'll ever return
to the smug font of wandering streets,
to planes that fly without
monsoons of prickled dread.
To sounds of coffee dripping
into sparkling glass
without that terror —
Braille of bodies telling us
just how blind we were perhaps.

Tortilla clouds could roll again.
Yes, clouds could.
They are the same word.
Someone moved the 'l'
from the back to the front.
Horrors landed on our soil.
Heroes rose from all the cracks
of blue mosaics
once considered jeweled skies.
They sawed our prongs of certainty.

Called up flags from quiet ditches
stitched closed by all our little needs.
Subway bullets stopped in tracks.
Stores that once sold Gucci shoes
became a morgue.
Mannequins we were are dead.
Burn our eyes, we learn to touch.
Snuff a wick, we fumble
for another match.
With ash in our lungs,
we will learn to breathe.
The city is softer now,
like a quilt washed
in storm after storm after storm.

Janet Buck's poetry, poetics, and fiction have appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry Magazine.com, CrossConnect, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Kimera, The Rose & Thorn, 2River View, Southern Ocean Review, Disquieting Muses, Urban Spaghetti, Perihelion, Mind Fire, Born Magazine, pif, 3rd Muse, Verse Libre Quarterly, Big Bridge, pith and hundreds of journals world-wide. Buck was one of U.S. poets to be featured at the "One Heart, One World" Exhibit at the United Nations Exhibit Hall in New York City in April, 2000. In January 2001, Art Villa Records released Janet's first audio CD of poetry and music called Before the Rose. It is available at: http://www.artvilla.com/shopping/poetry/rose.htm To hear a sample from the CD, go to: http://www.artvilla.com/mp3/umbrellas.mp3.
Note: Featured author in January 2001
E-mail: JBuck22874@aol.com
Writing interests: Poetry
Poems: "The Orphan", "Caught in Lesser Tragedies", "The Broken Promise", "The Gargoyle", "The Going", "The Bag Lady", "Rushing Toward Entelechy", "The Paralyzed Apocalypse", "Frozen Sonnets", "New York, New York", "Live on CNN", "America Under Siege", "Gutter Balls"
Links: Hot Links: Janet I. Buck, Janet's Latest Interview, Desideratum's Doggie Dish, Author's Den, Active Amp.org—Features Janet I. Buck, Poetry Magazine.Com-October-Janet Buck, The Part-time Postmodernist (August 2000), San Francisco Salvo, Moongate: Janet I. Buck, Offcourse, The October Country , Cafe Society: Poetry Life & Times, Kookamonga Square, The Adirondack Review , janetbuck.com, Funky Dog Publishing—Janet Buck's Strawberry Nipples, Athens Avenue—Janet I. Buck, One World-One Heart Exhibit , Ygdrasil: Issue 9 September 2000