Tuesday poem #282 : Di Brandt : O Sylvia

You could never have known

the air sucked out of the glass jar

of your desperate youth

your desperate life

your desperate death

would spread like wildfire

all over the world

and reverb reverb reverb

in the minds of millions

of ordinary and extraordinary

helpless and powerful

girls and women and men

who all understood

what you meant what you felt

what you were

you were not so alone after all

dear Sylvia in that blue tinged glass jar

take a look here we all are

from near and far crowding in

for a party with you

who taught us how to dance

with the dark side

of ourselves

 the nightmares lurking

in the basement

the attic the bedroom

the innocent looking corner store

Di Brandt is Winnipeg's first Poet Laureate (2018-2019). Her new book of poetry is Glitter & Fall: Poetic Meditations after Laozi's Dao De Jing, with ink drawings by Lin Xu (Turnstone Press forthcoming Fall 2018).

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan