Three Poems
by Ananda Selah Osel

Thirty-Seven-Hundred & No Heater

before she walked out
she told me their was
someone else,
i knew this already -
she said he'd be coming
to town and she would
stay with him
"he's connecting at jfk
and then he'll be in seattle; ten pm tonight"

so,
there he is at the
airport
strolling
with suitcase
handkerchiefs in all his pockets
and
polished shoes

he'd come and go
and
she would do
the same -
like before

we fixed dinner
and got drunk on wine
went to the bedroom
and I gave thirty worth
but couldn't finish

we watched a re-run
ate ice cream
and she packed
in front of the tv

at 9:30 she drank some
herbal tea
kissed me on the knee
told me she loved me
and
left

so i waited -
two
three
four five
six days

she never came back
and
when I called she never
answered
and
when I went to her job
she was not there
and
the co-workers
whispered

i went back to the house
drank two bottles of wine
and ate some fish-sticks

after 2 weeks I sold
our belongings -
made thirty seven hundred

moved into a run-down
room with no heater

and started over



Once in a While

every once in a while
you all of the sudden
understand something
which you've never
understood before,
it's miraculous
you always feel so
excellent when that happens
you go around telling others
what you've realized
and you anxious to put it
work
that feeling,
spontaneous realization,
is true bliss

you can only hope the
moment of death
is like that

but it's probably not.



D.A.R.E.

my grandmother hated
drug users
and used to go
out of her way to make
that point when
I was young.

she would stand in the
garden with her gardening gloves on
and her gardening dress
and her curly
bobble head bobbling
and lecture me.

at some point
i made the conscious
choice
to start
doing
drugs.
i wanted to see what the hype was
all about
and so I dabbled in
some things
and
now I feel better.
i'm relived
because of it.
and -

after all,
who wants to
wear garden gloves
patterned clothes
and
plant flowers all day?

no thank you.



About the author:
Ananda Selah Osel is a poet, polemicist, and photographer. His work has appeared in numerous small press journals, academic reviews, magazines and newspapers. Currently Ananda lives in Seattle, Washington where he drinks large quantities of red wine, rides his bicycle, and edits an online magazine called The CommonLine Project. You can read more of Ananda's work or contact him at www.ananda-osel.com.


© 2009 Ananda Selah Osel