Heavy

There is a thing 
Lingering that
I can’t put a finger on
But it has put a finger
On me maybe more
Than one for I feel
The heaviness of
The hand is heavy

Handed me quite
A put down just as
I was about to get up
And go about the bravery 
Of the yellow sloppiness 
Of life it takes a lot of 
Work to live and endure
Relaxing is a job that

Can’t just be taken
For granted or left
Back either you can’t 
Do one or the other 
Always in flux in a
Flurry of tizziness
Stop and be in the
Now without fearing here

That you may lose 
The before or afterlife
Being in the now where
You weren’t when thinking
About tomorrow coming before 
You know it the past has alluded
You or alluded to you when you 
Were young and beautiful maybe

You can again be next month if today
You find the right potions and use 
Religiously today and all your todays
And tomorrows but only in the here
And now otherwise you’ll skip the
Wrinkles sinking into the the groovy 
Grooves or into the groves of madness 
But don’t worry that won’t be today if

You’re not present for the happening 
Of death but in the mean time you 
Can plan a mean party to go out with a
Bang sometime next week in the middle
 
 
 

Lydia Cortés is the author of the poetry collections Lust for Lust and Whose Place. Her work also has been published in various anthologies as Puerto Rican Poetry From Aboriginal Times to the Present, Resist Much, Obey Little and online forums as What Rough Beast (Indolent Books). She is a MacDowell fellow and also was awarded residencies at VCCA and Valparaiso in Andalusia Spain.