Long live the old!
she cried
and everyone clapped.
Long live the old!
and nobody
got the joke.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Phone poems
That word
Sorry isn’t very nice.
Sorry’s better fat than thin,
out than in,
and better once than twice.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Keep dreaming
Inside your pineapple shell
you have dreams
of being happy,
being well.
*
Rachel McAlpine
In April 1996
In April 1996
I stopped lusting
after men
and men
stopped lusting
after me.
What synergy.
What symmetry.
*
Rachel McAlpine
A bad boy
A bad boy
is not so bad.
A bad man
is not so good.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Youth is juice
Youth is juice
youth is couth
and jumble
and youth
is jig-a-jig-jig.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Oh lucky Max
‘Today was the worst day
in my whole entire life.
Five bad things happened.
- I forgot my lunch—again.
- I missed out on play lunch.
- Celia hit me with a hat.
- Then Celia hit me with some
nail polish in a glove. - At soccer people stooded
on my head.’
Oh lucky Max.
You’re six.
May you never have another day
as bad as this.
*
Rachel McAlpine
For a minute
For a minute you thought
like a mythical hippo
that it was Monday.
Eat blueberries.
Yesterday’s treat
is tomorrow’s mythical cure.
*
Rachel McAlpine
A mask
In a personal
ground-level
crisis
a mask may descend.
Take it off.
Then attend
to a child
or a friend.
*
Rachel McAlpine
P.S. I am pretty sure I was in a helicopter over Dusky Sound when I took this photo.
Be nice
Ecstasy is exhausting.
Happiness is fine.
Rejoice when your pipes hold water.
Be nice to your plumber
rain or shine.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Poems in the wild—Rachel McAlpine 