4th Annual Bloggers Silent Poetry Reading

In honor of the 4th Annual Bloggers Silent Poetry Reading I would like to share this, yet another poem by my favorite poet, Jay Leeming, from his book Dynamite on a China Plate.

He Breathes Out Slowly

A woman's lips are like dynamite, they can blow
a house right off its foundations, remove
the car from the garage, money out of
pockets, his watch, keys, coins and cards
thrown onto a table near half-empty drinks,
damp napkins and cigarettes touched with lipstick
like a red glow at dawn, leaving his house
he goes out to meet her
by the morning glories, flowers opening
to fill his life with dresses, earrings,
painted toenails, green shoes and a skirt
tumbling like black water and mirrors, a skirt
that spends the night beside a chair, on the floor
like a feather of a bird dropped,
the sound of their voices laughing together
heard through a wall
by a man watching TV alone,
their breath at night rippling out
in stories told to friends,
the ice cream they eat
by the water, watching ships he tells
the door slammed, I meant to tell you
when it was all over, I meant to say
just how we met and what it came to,
what I did, a sock beneath
a bed, a voice inside a violin, hand
on her back, the waltz wrapped
in the hat he left behind a chair.