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Alice Pero
 
    Voyage Out of Old Skin 
 
 

Until I had crawled out of the hole
fear lapped at my ankles
like old soup

I was sure I would arrive at some
distant shore eventually
so I read my maps
and sweated feverishly at night

Mornings were better
when newsprint seemed new
and coffee was reheated

Traffic was an interesting battleground
I had forgotten the old wars

There was never any snow here
and vacant lots full of stones
hid wildflowers

No one really cared about the tiny things
so I made my battles huge
so they might be real to someone

The sun was so far away
it burned anyway
and people shed bodies
as easily as snakes dropped skins

One little note got my attention
and I listened to it for a hundred years
but I missed everything else that happened
and a few people were mildly annoyed

Children were loud and woke me up
I decided it was better to play
more notes, be amazed at sunflowers

start over, drawing thin lines
that would startle someone into
the kind of laughter that lasts

Alice Pero has a Bachelor of Music from Manhattan School of Music in New York City. She has performed poetry, music and dance on both the East and West Coasts of the US. Her poems have been published in numerous anthologies and small magazines and on the web. Her first book of poetry «Thawed Stars» (ISBN 0-931104-47-5) was published in 1999 and is available at Amazon books and through SunInk Publications. She currently lives in California.

 
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