Two new Poems
by Mindy Watson

Seesaw

(a villanelle)

 

 

Your feet propel me toward the skies,

But when you soar, I fall. And though

I want what symmetry supplies,

 

Momentum’s all that we comprise.

When self-reproach has thrust me low,

Your feet propel me toward the skies -

 

But just as sanguine musings rise,

Our inclined see-saw seats plateau.

I want what symmetry supplies,

 

But equity’s just downfall’s guise.

And when your put-downs drop me low,

Your feet propel me toward the skies.

 

For years, I’ve strived to stabilize

Our course in vain, yet still I know

I want what symmetry supplies.

 

Let’s disembark; let’s equalize -

This mount’s a crutch we ride. Although

Your feet propel me toward the skies,

I want what symmetry supplies.

 

 

 

 

 

Shark Cage

(a rondeau)

 

The jaws that bite can’t breach this cage

I rang my heart within an age

Ago. Back then, I merely deigned

To drift the sea enclosed—disdained

My chaste security. I’d rage

 

Against my nuptial bars, engage

With bait the circling sharks. I’d wage

Relentless battle ‘til I reined

The jaws that bite.

 

When errant strokes could not assuage,

I pried these bars and fled my cage.

I swam with sharks while unconstrained,

But learned too late why love attained

Imposes bars: to disengage

The jaws that bite.

 

 

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