Written at the age of sixty, and even truer today than when written ~ as we must add to it now the well-understood womanly effects of three years’ homelessness also.

The poet states, as she has stated already repeatedly, that she has now become too wounded by the hardships she’s been facing to ever conduct a love affair again.

She split her guts being a law abiding California homeless person, went into toxic shock, and was never given an opportunity to fully recover.

All the joys, comforts and protections of a love relationship are now beyond her.

She can’t possibly be trying to take yours, if you have a man, or trying to take you, if you are one.

Let there be peace in this valley.

*****

Recorded Reading (2:28): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/q4dgtkmxh6nppoztnpxxr/What-More.mp3?rlkey=1ra6ic9nkfbf7156rf1tvp917&dl=0

*****

What More?

How is it that a woman shaves her head,
Forgets to apply skin cream before bed,
And dressed in so much winter clothing goes
Her body contours no observer knows,
Whom, anyway, in every way appears
As having, every one, her sixty years,

Cannot for any purposes be bought
In heart, in speech, in body, or in thought
Giving no quarter femininity
As it’s considered traditionally —
Far too enthusiastic and alert
To play successfully the languid flirt

Strangely dressed, and strangely spoken too
You never know what she will say to you
Though are assured that once those words commence
They’ll surely make such excellent good sense
As makes those listeners uncomfortable
Whom slogan’d compromises of are full…

How is it, ask we — (particularly
Asks one of us, and that one would be she
Herself) — How is it such a termagent
Mistaken can be of her true intent
By women with whom she acquainted be? —
What more takes it to quell their jealousy?

*****

Until removal of the stalker/targeter/vandal/arsonist following her allows her to approach any landlord ~ even for a private parking space ~ and to begin once again to create professional connections and to rebuild her life, this poet presently lives homeless and at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

Arts patrons may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code #72D-31S, or choose to send a personal check to the poet’s ABLE account. It takes about two weeks for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

Thank you for supporting quality in the fine arts.