Come with me and join my dance
To happenstance and circumstance
Quite the diversion
After life of self-determination
One can’t become autoimmune too soon

No need to shuffle toward the grave
When we can go laughing and spinning and brave
And if the left side of your brain explodes
Why so long to diagnose?
Crabs on pussy, fungus on toes
Is the mind, really, such a terrible thing to lose?

Come with me and join my dance
To happenstance and circumstance
Heel, toe, cancer on nose, let’s shuffle off to Buffalo
And if your limbs no longer work
You need no longer read a book,
Or plant a tree or wash or cook
Instead we can dance our lopsided dance
On the precipice
‘Tween life and death

Come with me and join my dance
To happenstance and circumstance
I will sing of whatever pleases
We can feel the pain and embrace our diseases
We’ll go so far as to dance upon their posies
And fling the pox
And ring the rosies
And holler “Goody, Goody, Goody”
“Goody, Goody, Goody”
And when they surround us
We’ll refuse to surrender
Let us all be unhealthy offenders
I dream at nite of lying down with lepers

Come with me and join my dance
To happenstance and circumstance
Where bubbles are burst and innocence shattered
Dreams dashed, bodies battered
Till at last emerges wisdom and power
Tear are banished, youth cowers
Dance, you know, is a mighty form of motion

So come with me and join my dance
To happenstance and circumstance
We’ll press our bodies tight against the Devil’s
And when our failing T-cells
Become a point of pride
We can whither and writhe
And still survive
And let our wasted limbs tell our story

Come with me and join my dance
To happenstance and circumstance
Whether condition acute or chronic
No need to fret, no need to panic
Gangrene feet, swollen knees
Hepatitis ABC
Give praise to your infirmities
Holler “Glory, Glory, Glory”
“Glory, Glory, Glory”

And chalk it up to happenstance
And dance and dance and dance and dance

© Lorna Sue Sides

If I were the perfect person
I would write the perfect poem
And I would write it every week
Oh, the colors would change
And winter to summer
A mountain might turn to a creek

But my poem would always be glorious
Its words would always be rhymed
Its voice would be gentle
Dripping with sunshine
With love, always patient and kind

But I have many a loss
And many a fear
Many a fate waiting to be sealed
Many a child crying inside
Many a secret screams to be revealed

I have been promised a future of glory
I have seen my soul consumed
I have loved and lost
And I love once more
I've carried a child inside of my womb

I've chosen lust of love
I've refused to forgive
I have judged and I been wrong
I grasp and I grope
And I curse and I smoke
Yet the muses still gift me their songs

So I write poems charged with passion
And poems filled with pain
Poems to cleanse me
And poems to mend me
And poems to define me again and again

So let my pen be filled with lightening
And my voice with thunder speak
Let every truth that I reveal
Be the truth that sets me free

Let me write one thousand poems
Poems joyful, poems bleak
Let me grieve
And let me breathe
And let each poem be unique

© Lorna Sue Sides

4-22-06

The persnickety pine stands tall and proud
Single of purpose
Steadfast and true
Reaching each day for the sun
But Lady Madrone and I
We understand that it’s OK
To lead our lives a different way
To meander thru our days
In a graceful dance with gravity

The massive oak
It spreads like science
Each leaf reaching
For it’s ever fair share
Of the day’s solar glaze

But Madam Madrone and I
We have no fear
Of life in the understory
Our limbs spread low upon the earth
Not wanting to rise
Though know we must
Take each day
Leaf here
Branch there,
To keep our strength,
A tiny sip of the sun.
We actually take pride in filling the voids
Left by those with grander plans

So for each branch reaching skyward
We produce perhaps two
To brush the earth in the wind
And protect fawns in the rain

And we have berries
And buds in the autumn
And thru the winter our leaves remain
Undaunted by the changing of the seasons
Leafs falling instead to their own rhyme or reason
Mother earth knows many different songs

With layer after layer
Of bark thick and rich
Clinging to the wood of the cottonwood tree
You can rest assured
It’s cottonwood heart
Sleeps well protected deep inside

But Sister Madrone and I
Our skins are thin
Our hearts lay near the surface

Cut us and we shall bleed
Scratch us and we shall peel
Then heal
How well we heal
For one limb lost
Another will rise to take it’s place
Without a loss of grace or faith

And leaf after leaf will soon unfold
Leaves of leather
Green and bold

©Lorna Sue Sides

October 2, 2005

Weaverville, CA

October 4, 2005

Nice, CA

© Lorna Sue Sides
May 2004 and May 2005

Kill or be killed, you cannot win
Kill or be killed, you cannot win
Kill or be killed, you cannot win
The truth is known
The truth is known
The truth is known
Do not be a pawn in their game
Do not be a pawn in their game
Do not be a pawn in their game
The truth is known
The truth is known
The truth is known

we walked the path to Bo No Pa Ti
shoulder to shoulder
short to tall
we walked the path
to victims small
and victims old
scalps sold
bodies silent on the water

my bones ache for the hearts of the soldiers
who do not understand the orphans cry

as for me-
i pierce my flesh in one thousand places
one hundred graces
lost
i ask for mercy upon my soul

Kill or be killed, you cannot win
Kill or be killed, you cannot win
Kill or be killed, you cannot win
The truth is known
The truth is known
The truth is known

Tromp Stomp
Tromp Stomp
They gave a war and the soldiers came
Set asunder by the Masters of War
Extol, extol the rockets red glare
Bloody work-this harvesting of oil

Firing mortars at 12 year old martyrs
Leveling homes and tearing thru temples
Clamp Clomp
Clamp Clomp
They gave a war and fire reigned
Innocence was caught in the back draft

Chemical burns
Toxins churn
Tramp Tromp
Tramp Tromp
They gave a war and the soldiers came
And caissons rolled
Death tolls
Bodies swollen in the dessert

Kill or be killed, you cannot win
Kill or be killed, you cannot win
Kill or be killed, you cannot win
Do not be a pawn in their game
Do not be a pawn in their game
Do not be a pawn in their game
The truth is known
The truth is known
The truth is known

Tromp Stomp
Tromp Stomp
They gave a war and the soldiers came
With ‘lectric prods
And metal bars
What will life be like
in the cities
after the fires burn out?