MARGE PIERCY

Marge Piercy, whose book Woman on the Edge of Time William Gibson has dubbed the birthplace of Cyberpunk, has published 20 poetry collections; most recently, On the Way Out, Turn Off the Light (Knopf). She has also written seventeen novels including Sex Wars. PM Press reissued Vida, Dance the Eagle to Sleep and brought out Piercy’s short stories in The Cost of Lunch, Etc. as well as publishing her poems and essays in My Body, My Life. Piercy has read at over 575 venues in the U.S. and abroad.

WHAT WE REVERE AND DON'T

The goddess of bees must

be angry, how we are killing

her children, who run their

society far better than we do.

All things are full of gods

an ancient Greek philosopher

wrote. I’m a Jew, fairly

observant, but in some ways

having many gods instead

of one makes sense. Nothing

in the universe is all-powerful

except black holes. Who

but a nihilist would worship

those? But after Ha Shem’s

wife was removed, women

often still worshipped her.

People like gods with faces.

It’s still true. Fundamentalists

have a male god who thinks

just like them.

MEDICAL MEDLEY

Doctors who specialize

differ. Eye doctors would

prefer you drop off your

eyes in the morning,

pick them up when they

are finished. Gynecologists

tend to be more involved

with you. I became good

friends with two of mine.

After all, they know about

your sex life, if any, your

female troubles. Some

internists love to prescribe

pills for everything, even

when so called side effects

nearly kill you. Yes, some

are more intimate with your

body or brain than others

for whom you’re just one

body part they deal with.

FOOLED AGAIN

Sun invites, gilding skeletons

of winter trees. Step out. Wind

bites hard, sandpapers eyes,

cheeks, whatever is bare.

So many things look good, like

food created for the eyes, not

the tongue or the stomach.

The eyes trick us.

Women may marry a cleft chin,

broad shoulder, a crooked

smile, but live with a gambler`

womanizer, rough temper.

Every person is a package

wrapped for show and who

can guess what’s inside?

Surprise! Delight or despair.

Surfaces are all we can see.

That’s why we’re often fooled.

With weather it’s sometimes

fatal, with lovers, also.

HOW THAT CHILD SURVIVES

There are upside-down families

where a child is the only adult.

Sometime in childhood that

child learns that they must

make the hard decisions while

navigating grade school,

the neighborhood, enemies,

friends. At some point they

take over the bills, keep

track of money, fill out forms

that must be submitted. In fact

their life is a long list of what

must be done.

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