-1Adoption:

That Self Inside Myself You Are Missing

To my wife: Tonight I draw moonlight shadows of my worda broken oath, like a cracked wood board on a promenade, is thrown into the sea. You try not to smile, for you know how to hold slivers of a golden sunsetinside (your chest) like the little fingers and mouththat poked your jaunty breast. I love that self inside myself you are, those swirls ofpain and sorrow. Black turtlenecks and berets, hidden deep in poetry. We dipped our midnight bodies into Walden Pond, your gaunt arms hung around my neck, conceiving what we would write. Our dreams centered on escape down Route 2, escape on that slushy, bare highway, till its very end. On our road was "Red Apple Farm," where we found within your tree a delicious red apple, hanging from a bough. We took umbrage under some oaks in Orange, a town halfway down Route 2, before we moved on with our journey. Orange was a town where no rhyme existed, no rhythm in which to bury our heads, no talk of SOULS and SELF and SILENCE and SOCIALISM. Our literature became our bodies: commas and quotes and parenthesis and lines in between punctuation. What a novel we wrote! An opening line that demanded attention, witty repartee, other French words, lots of action, a climax, of course. An end that surprised yet seemed inevitable. To my son: When we first held you in our arms, frail, light as you were,

with hands that held so tight and a forehead that blushed with life, I threw the oath that we would keep our child upon the table, like a poem that had to be edited. -Dean O. Terms Walden Pond: Where writer and transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau completed his most famous works. Orange: the only word in the English language without a true rhyme Metaphors (spoiler alert) Route 2: Route 2 is used in the poem as a metaphor of a marriage without children Conceiving What We Would Write: having sex and conceiving a child Red Apple Farm: Red Apple Farm is an actual location on Route 2 that is used as a metaphor for the discovery of pregnancy Orange: Orange is also an actual location on Route 2, it is a large forest area in New England. At this point, the couple has given their baby up for adoption and is facing a midlife crisis. Going farther down Route 2: at this point, the couple has accepted the adoption and travels into their elder ages like a poem that had to be edited (line attributed to poet David Kirby): how the couple looked at the child as an acceptable burden of their writing How many metaphors did you see in the poem? Are there others ones still in there? Help a starving artist! Share "Adoption" on facebook by using the readcast button on the left column. That way, I will be able to focus on writing you more quality content. Read more of my poetry, ordered by what I think is the best quality: 1. America Talks to Her Son, Manhattan 2. Adoption: That Self Inside Myself You Are Missing 3. Ireland as a Metaphor for Poetry 4. Comas Dripping (very abstract, so sit with it for awhile) 6. Your Name is Jessica Claire 7. Katherine's the Baddest Baby on the Block 8. Marlboros Join the 27 Club 9. Lobster Season in Massachusetts 10. 9 Men Up for the Red Sox (vs. the Yankees)

11. Blue is the Color of Our Love (after e.e. cummings "i carry your heart with me") 12. Between the Mountains and the Sea 13. Manhattan Talks to His Son, the Concrete (to be read in conjunction with "America Talks to Her Son, Manhattan") 14. Daffodils Wither in the Sink(after William Carlos William's "The Red Wheel Barrow") 15. Age (after Edgar Allen Poe's "Annabel Lee") 16. Love XXV (after Khalil Gibran Khalil's "Beauty XXV") 17. Arab Women and the Arab Spring 18. For Lost Love: Arab Fruit 19. For Brailey 20. The Mona Lisa and the Quran 21. Becca Walks like Rain 22. Love is Not a Heard Emotion (after Spike Mulligan's "A Silly Poem") Or read by my alter egos

Dean O.
1. America Talks to Her Son, Manhattan 2. Adoption: That Side Inside Myself You Are Missing 3. Ireland as a Metaphor for Poetry 4. Comas Dripping 5. Your Name is Jessica Claire 6. Katherine's the Baddest Baby on the Block 7. Marlboros Join the 27 Club 8. Lobster Season in Massachusetts 9. 9 Men Up for the Red Sox (vs. the Yankees) 10. Manhattan Talks to His Son, the Concrete (to be read in conjunction with "America Talks to Her Son, Manhattan") 11. For Brailey 12. Becca Walks like Rain

Sword of Religion
1. Between the Mountains and the Sea 2. Arab Women and the Arab Spring 3. For Lost Love: Arab Fruit 4. The Mona Lisa and the Quran

Safe Imitation
1. Blue is the Color of Our Love (after e.e. cummings' "i carry your heart with me")

2. Daffodils Wither in the Sink (after William Carlos William's "The Red Wheel Barrow") 3. Age (after Edgar Allen Poe's "Annabel Lee") 4. Love XXV (after Khalil Gibran Khalil's "Beauty XXV"') 5. Love is Not a Hard Emotion (after Spike Mulligan's "A Silly Poem") If you made it this far, congratulations! I love you. Spread the good word.