Voir Dire Poem by Denise Liddell Lawson

Tell me about yourself.
Inflection expresses pleasure.

Where are you from?
A house with many drawers and in each one is a bird.

Your race?
Monarch orange and bristling.

What do you do?
The wind picks up.

How do you do it?
I dig out the seed with a nail.

Do you believe in progress?
Evolution is spelled erratically.

Politics?
Bark, split and patched with lichen.

And your heroes?
Shadows trade places.

What are your ambitions?
Oxygen flows through a window and I lose track of it.

Pursuits?
Affection, direction.

What do you value?
Attention is currency.

Best advice?
In the morning, the stimulation of water; later, of letters.

In a word?
Hammock. Or havoc.