Go in and out the Window

In appreciation of Raven, high priestess of the worzzdle, who has graciously nurtured this creative exercise for 55 cycles.

This poem is a tribute to inner demons, with the utmost respect for what we can learn from visiting with our most intimate fears.

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: humanity, shadow, ricochet, wrong, pluralism, mathematics, personhood, printing press, ink spot, choral society

Mini Challenge: kingdom, take names, best seller, three times, inner demons

"There is nothing in the dark that isn’t there when the lights are on."

Rod Serling

ink spots spreading rumors
a wrong a lie a debt
amnesia is the strategy
to satisfy a bet

In the kingdom of acrostic
we all play the game
three times three we falter
in the rectory of blame

trace a long gray shadow
dampening the grass
crowd into an empty church
mumbling high mass

Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
As we have done before *

complaint imbues best seller
the hundredth starling sings
fans the tired static air
with a thousand missing things

in the rumpus room of memory
we construct a shrine
mathematics of depletion
virginity, spilled wine

She circles her inner demons
with a sextant and an ax
a ready rubric for the font
the fins, the psalms, the tax

Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
As we have done before

silence is a flavor
brutality a creed
every kiss that’s stolen
multiplies the need

½ a cup of bromide
a dash of anodyne
the dead don’t need a license
to rob a person blind

in the back streets of Astoria
the bishop takes the queen
it’s still too close for comfort
to realized where she’s been

Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
As we have done before

Stalin herds the litter
to the safety of the shore
humanity is hungry
to issue the next war

gracie’s selling tickets
the room is filling fast
tremont choral society
is groping for the past

the dead have no discretion
they are not worth their salt
bringing up dropped stitches
that were no body’s fault

Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
As we have done before

whispers of plurality
the brotherhood construes
a printing press across the pond
delivers heady news

fingers span the octaves
the tundra swan returns
personhood acquitted
in the lessons that are learned

I am she who takes the names
but have forgotten how to write
a heart a song unbroken
ricochets delight

*Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
As we have done before

Go up and down the staircase
Go up and down the staircase
Go up and down the staircase
As we have done before

Go round and round the village
Go round and round the village
Go round and round the village
As we have done before

Stand and face your partner
Stand and face your partner
Stand and face your partner
As we have done before

Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
As we have done before

(traditional children’s nursery rhyme)