A List of Things You Could String Together

Well verbs, for one thing,
and run-on sentences that pile up like boxcars going over a 
                                                              cliff—
or beads of colour, glass, pearls
of wisdom and anecdotes Grama Millie told
in her quarbly voice; you could string together a whole life
of excuses, promises, regrets,
never getting the gist of the present of presence—
for that matter you could line up gifts and holidays
in a calendar laced with tomorrows and 
“nineteen more shopping days until” …
you could weave tales and spin yarns, 
stitching together swatches of stories
like you’ve heard them somewhere before.
Remember lacing up elastics in a line
to play yogi at recess, jumping over rubber horizons?
The paperclips strung into a necklace
for Mother’s Day? The web of alibis
when you first tasted beer? You could weave
wonder into everyday things: praying an apple,
for example, or doing dishes as a meditation …
You could thread your dreams
into a fishnet to catch more, or dot
to dot the constellations until they formed
a pattern; you could even live
on a shoestring!
Or you could spend some time unravelling,
but that’s another poem.

© Kate Marshall Flaherty