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Squeaky​(​Fromme, DAUGHTER)

from The Obscene Gravity Of Silence by Paulie Lipman

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about

This is the third piece from my Women In The Shadows trio. These three poems are written from the viewpoint of different women in modern American history.

lyrics

When I was 13
my father shut his mouth so hard
his last word to me
was the hissing breeze through the
delicate bayonets of his teeth
After that he would only part his lips
to grin flint at me
like a spiked redwood tree
Its only relief was my mother all willow wispy
limbs nowhere as strong but forgiving enough to
let the light through.

The few neighbors I’ve met
call me Ms. Fromme
Nobody calls me Squeaky anymore
except for the reporters
I like it here
There are more trees than people

I’ve stood in the long, cold shadows of 3 redwoods
but only one let me be
his daughter
His family
more loving than the one I shared a name with
and there is far more blood between us
He
was soil and sky
brush fired me back to nothing
and then truly
raised me
shaped us into the sirens
for His Divine Armageddon
We would fell Jericho
again

I have lived
almost 2 of Christ’s lifetimes
and wish
I had his sense of purpose

The last redwood
was as indifferent as the first
All I wanted was to tell him
that he and the rest of his kind
were tipped on the brink of extinction
If I had learned anything
it was that laying blood at their feet
would not even stir the leaves of these
ancient leviathans
but the menace of death
will bleed their rings
into surrender
So
I stood at the very roots of him
and gave him the barest glimpse
of the axe

I am 60 years old
My only husband, the forest
I am a weathered sapling, grown crooked
in the shadow of 2 fathers long left to mulch
and the third, a preserved oddity
for the tourists
My mother’s weakened branches
long withered and returned to dirt
I am not a murderer
I’ve only ever loved one
I am a parolee
I am a ward of the state
I am now no one’s daughter
but yours

credits

from The Obscene Gravity Of Silence, released March 15, 2011

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all rights reserved

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about

Paulie Lipman Denver, Colorado

Paulie Lipman has been a part of 8 Denver National Slam Teams(including '04's second place and '06's national champions). His work has appeared in The Legendary, Borderline, and the Write Bloody anthology: The Good Things About America.

In addition to Spoken Word, Pauile is also a musician/composer and is available for hire for commercial/video game/soundtrack work.
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