2 poems

by Claire Scott

CAN TIME RUN BACKWARD

can misdeeds be undone
the myriad cruelties
we inflict on others
especially those
we profess to love
slicing sarcasm
lies and lies
of betrayal
sodden hate
curled in our hearts
leaking, leaking

does time’s spool not
rewind, does it simply
wait for Atropos to cut
the thread with her fated
shears while her sisters
look on impassively

can’t we go back like Orpheus
with the gods’ dispensation
softening the heart of Hades
with celestial music, can’t we
rescue the past and
lead it to light
like Eurydice

or was Eurydice a trick
of the gods, an apparition to
prove their power over
a poet and musician
whose mournful songs
moved them to weep
whose love moved them
to consider for one
slim nanosecond
the possibility of
reversing time

the gods speak last

Eurydice fades
licking up shadows
with a final word              

                  farewell

Cut the thread, Atropos

Time is one way.

-

OLD LADY

I am an old lady with dried breasts
stretch marks on a wrinkled belly
blue veins on pocked thighs

each day after canned soup
and saltines I inch my way
on my walker, listing a bit

alert to cracks of my undoing
making my slow way to the
park at the block’s end

I watch young mothers
push children on swings
the children shout, “higher!”

shriek with delight
pleading for more
and more time

flying
beyond gravity’s pull
beyond time’s tick

the wind soughs at my back
I tighten my scarf
wrap my sweater

close and
turn away
earthbound

living on faded
memories fingered
like a rosary

tethered to gravity’s
pull, to time’s tick
silt settling in

a rusty heart
yet still the children
shout, “higher!”

voices shrill in the
autumn dusk
I smile despite

swollen knees
resistant bowels
reflecting recalling

the weightless joy
beyond time’s tick
beyond gravity’s pull

I turn once more to taste
rapture’s renewal
before this hour fades

forever from the life
of an old lady
drifting higher and higher

savoring the laughter
of children as she
floats away