Poetry snippets

[cinaed]

I sold my mind on the street.
I learned another language. It translates easily.
Here's how: What I say is not what I mean,
nor is it ever what I meant to say.
You must not believe me when I say
there's nothing left to love in this world.

- "Lying My Head Off" by Cate Marvin

*

...but I'm a broken promise in a pawn shop,
and this is just a secret that happens to involve you.

- "Another Long Night in the Office of Dreams" by Jeffrey McDaniel

*

Tell me a story.
In this century, and moment, of mania,
Tell me a story.
Make it a story of great distances,
and starlight.
The name of the story will be Time,
But you must not pronounce its name.
Tell me a story of deep delight.

- "Tell Me A Story" by Robert Penn Warren

*

Maybe
what really happened is

this: the old fable-makers searched hard for a word
to convey that what is gone is gone forever and
never found it. And so, in the best traditions of

where we come from, they gave their sorrow a name
and drowned it.

- "Atlantis - A Lost Sonnet" by Eavan Boland

*

Physics says: go to sleep. Of course
you're tired. Every atom in you
has been dancing the shimmy in silver shoes
nonstop from mitosis to now.
Quit tapping your feet. They'll dance
inside themselves without you. Go to sleep.

- "The Sciences Sing a Lullabye" by Albert Goldbarth