The Going

by Janet I. Buck

"The ceremony of innocence is drowned..."

The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Since I’m "published" now, you like
the sound of my voice, invite me to read.
We'll dress up all nine cats,
forget how razor claws
have scratched old screens.
I will seem artsy and tolerable.
I shall be stroked and my tininess
will swell as if my ache
is suddenly political and popular
and staked like ads for congressmen
on front lawns of the main, main drag.

Green grass is gray now, a little
orange in its tint from autumn leaves
and the road seems smaller than before.
I am a fancier label now.
But skin peels in the same sun;
moon is still cracked cuticle.
I wonder if my substance
has sold out to fancy urge—
like a chicken coop looks
back on deviled eggs.
Its feathers didn't fight the ax.

Am I reading to read?
Or gather fruit from petting rites?
Discover the thought of applause—
and pennies grow from nickels
to dimes to dollar signs.
In the old days of a nobody's song,
I could write as if I were singing
in a hot shower, straight
at the steam and all four walls.
But towels are now a public drape.
I wonder if I'll keep my edge and go for going—
not for how the rattle sounds.

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