Sudden shadow passing through me
back to temptation rebellion Ta' Iowa girl
wind gust temp drop winter rain pressure meme
Always ghosts in eye corners 'round her
figured it part of illusion love
Blued-eyed brunette
with cd collection to beat band
Loved Led Zeppelin had the Zep
Introduced me to Polly Jean
White Striped O Yeah Yeah Yeah
Raised from the dead me
skeleton woman's breath saved
O my beloved revolutionary sweetheart
Hear my hidden secrets bought
with the passion I gave
Ate the pirate ship
sails anchors all
Two decades younger she
Me gone Kraken fool
when disappeared she
like witness protection program
key scarlet starlet
for Caine's Mutiny remake
Ahab howled six years ... Six!
Putting that on the list
And she wouldn't listen
to "Ladies of the Canyon"
when I wanted her to
And she gave all she had
to any beggar on the street
And she would
bring the homeless home
Same for rehabbed animals
And she inextricably
started hating Maddow
And she wouldn't pick a religion
or style or sexual orientation
And she agreed with bejeweled
Navajo shopkeeper chick
I was bossy Capricorn One
When I would follow
Scorpio sultry royal
beheaded Scot princess
DNA & O those hips
to Hades or Iowa
Not sure first which
Put that on, too. That witch!
And she was never same never
when mom committed suicide
And she wouldn't change
when I wanted her to be different
And she lost her fertile mind
when I didn't want her to
Ran in family sister said
Others wagged a finger
over her paranormal normal
For me not so much a curse
much more a feature
of her muse-lit funnel cloud
eternal conundrums
All the same
put that in negative column
Noplacia
unsafe
& utopian
impossible
Chapel Perilous
at high volume
enduring bonds
implausible
And I have been again scouring
for that psychologist
needed to deal & insulate
over each tragedy with her
And then there was time
snow-crushed Iowa
talking taking task landlord
on why big old bathtub
smelled methamphetamine
& he threw us out
into series of motel hells
Thirteen years ... Thirteen!
In the positive
Her shake & bake
escape technique
It was all I could do
to think about her
red-shifting wiggle
down the road
drafting your heart
in the undertow
when I found myself
in deep trouble
But no worries
Did the secret
move-into-shadow fade
like a Sioux brave
Her ghost
getting me home
One last thing
for this soul expurgigatin' list
One last thing positive
sealed with a kiss
Tho unemployable
in way unique even
for Twenty-First Century
liberal arts grad
She could recite Chaucer
in Ye Olde English
& when called
for prompted
her eyes ignited
metaphysical
& she could make piano
sound like dinosaurs walking
Well beyond wedding bells
or any other mere mortal law
believed tentatively to exist
She had the Magdelene heart
of a bombing paper rock
stinger scissors throwing
bachelorette anarchist
~ Douglas McDaniel
Tolleson, Arizona
For Jaimie Ondrea Dunn
