Travelers Welcome

Travelers Welcome

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Three Sheets to the Wind

by Lisa Vihos

I find them hanging on the line.
They willy-nilly catch the wind
and pull everything else with them:
socks, underwear, pantyhose.

Large, like spinnakers, they billow
on the summer breeze like three sighs,
three graces. They are reminders
of where I have been and where

I am going. First, the swaddling
sheet of infancy, when the world
was my oyster and all things miracles.
Second, the sheet of paper, the blank

on which I wrote my life story, inch-
by-inch and hour-by-hour. I made
an airplane; flew my craft to far-flung lands
where no one knew my name. A place

I could reinvent myself with the right words.
And last, the shroud. The coverlet in which
I spend the next few hours spread out
on this hard floor, tasting eternity.

2 comments:

  1. Magnificent.

    No other word comes to mind after reading this poem.

    Lisa Vihos will be writing for a very long time.

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  2. Well, Lisa Vihos has to chime in here and say thank you for your kind words, Donal. I was away for a few days and did not see any of this until today. I'm so pleased to know that you enjoyed the poem.

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