Patti Masterman Poems

Words are tender truncheons that often are disguised,
As too familiar gallows, that we're dragged to in the night;
Penance on pedestals, till morning's dreary light..
Everything we try to say's transparent or too trite.
...

Nothing here shall ever forget
How flowers rot, from underneath,
And fruit, when only pierced the skin,
To the circling wasp's bequeathed.
...

She didn't die, she didn't die,
It’s no use to cry, no use to sigh;
We wear person-hood like suits of flesh,
Change it out sooner or later, for fresh.
...

Once I tried to rhyme my rhymes in dreamy eyes of two,
Three-quarter time, I took the time to dance a pas de deux.
Now my ballets were underscored by men so well disguised
That I could watch my cue-to-cue's reflected by their lies.
...

All hurts are still the first one,
All pains repeat the same,
Rejection states, that you'll win none;
Your cast-off face and name.
...

The birds are as alone as I,
But do not pause to question why.
Each one his wing to wind, must bear;
Must endure weather foul or fair.
...

Some dream in four dimensions,
Of verbs with no declensions,
Of movies with no scripting,
Clocks telling time in binary;
...

When you swim in the world,
you swallow its blue;
and there's places go way
to the center of you,
...

There's an alligator in the Petunias-
No wait- and I'll try to explain;
I think he came in through the gate,
Left open, once again.
...

I try to imagine all of my chrysalides
Over hill and dale, and in the far distance,
Sun gleaming on bright, fledgling wings
As they spread and take to the sky;
...