IMAGE OF EARTH AND QUILL

Guest Poet Gary Lehmann



What Dreams may Come in Death's Other Kingdom?


My aerobics class went first 

the season's tickets to the show

my heeled shoes

my Sunday paper all these are gone now

my apartment

my ghostly white Buick

my evening news

my romance novels things fall away like leaves

my slow walks around the grocery store

my self-tending roses

my hat and gloves

my tattered diplomas

my tea cup collection

my church envelopes there is no room any more

my black book of phone numbers

my summer dresses

my painted bed

my coffee table doilies

my purple umbrella here it rains all the time

my Meicin flower vase

my figurines

my plastic jars for left-overs

my hair spray

my winter coat

my big hefty bags

my wallet and my purse there is no need of money now

my shower cap

my Christmas card collection

my medicines

and all the rest.

What dreams may come in death's other kingdom?


July, 2000


Gary Lehmann's Questions:

This poem is about all the things my aunt Dorothy gave up as she moved from her apartment into an old age home.

Does the list approach work or is it boring?






The Albany Poetry Workshop