BEATE SIGRIDDAUGHTER - POEMS

Beate Sigriddaughter, www.sigriddaughter.com, is poet laureate of Silver City, New Mexico (Land of Enchantment), USA. Her work has received several Pushcart Prize nominations and poetry awards. In 2018 FutureCycle Press will publish her poetry collection Xanthippe and Her Friends and Červená Barva Press will publish her chapbook Dancing in Santa Fe and Other Poems in 2019.

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​IN FLIGHT

​Everything in flight
a pelican,
a dragonfly,
seagulls and thistle seeds,
small
birds that look like swallows.
 
I am grounded
here
with the lizards
and the rabbits,
though at times
one of us leaps
or runs.
 
I am happy here
for a moment
even rooted
like a flower
sending out lavish
calls for attention
and offers
of sweetness
for anyone
who has use for it.
 
 
 

​FROM THIS CAULDRON
 

​From this cauldron of conflict
you believe
you have not chosen
you unfurl
the sudden wings of tenderness.

​BROMANCE

​Not born to be insignificant,
not born to be a servant,
not born to be a supporting actress
I watch this endless male parade
of worship and misplaced importance.
 
I notice at least gay men are affirming
the truth we all live, that men adore
each other beyond reason, pray to God
the father even as He will sacrifice his own
son, even as death and nirvana
are the pivot of all spiritual lives.
 
In my long life I have not met
a single man who has treated me
with as much respect as he treats
any other man, no matter how
uncouth or misguided. Now
we live in a culture that sanctions
a man in power who, married
to his third princess, still has license
to voice contempt for women openly.
 
I have heard over and over and over
again how women have only themselves
to blame. They point to Eve as seducer
when all she reached for was a bite
of knowledge and the wish to share.
 
And what of equally endangered
polar bears and jaguars or vanishing
trees that keep allowing us to breathe--
what have they done to deserve blame?
Were they perhaps too arrogant to choose
to be a part of this magnificent
and interwoven world?
 
All I know is how you would like me
better silent
about all this.