JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

Slim as a stick lady

flat as a paper doll

in cut-out, glue-on clothes

 

She winds the string

round ankle, straightens

cord to bubble-red disk

 

Waiting patient on the ground

a flip, a skip, a hop, they’re off

tied to each other

 

With this swinging singing line

round and round they go, merging

lifting, zinging in the air

 

Scattering dry leaves to heaps

round and round they whirl

a singing dancing flying creature

 

Made of cord and sticks

and paste book colored clothes

that flicker red then flicker blue

 

A spellbound sash-tied couple

rising like a helicopter toy

at one end a singing Catherine wheel

 

And on the other

counting like a skipping rope

as tens and hundreds mount

 

My whirling red-cheeked

record breaking six year old

skirt flying paste-book girl