1
it's
2006
what
do i know
i'm
65
the
worst is yet to come
better
write
while
i can
(old
lady
new
poet)
a
challenge
to
be sure
2
autobiography
bug strikes
predictably
of course
predictably
a bore
3
what
if
a
giant puzzle poem
rigid
as hell
rigid
enough to make me think
and
then what
4
not
Peter Ganick
he's
famous
i'm
not
even
i the new poet
know
potes and potes
he
knows good stuff
he
doesn't know me
5
the
in-house daughter
self
appointed poet/critic
comes
straight to the point
you
never know the value
of
your work, she says
the
worse it is
the
better you think it is
and
what you think is trash
i
say
could
bring you fame
(tho
of a modest sort)
Submit
6
65
words per year
the
years in pairs
moving
from year 33
back
toward 1 and 65
paired
‒ and
then
within
each pair ‒
repeated
words
1
in the first ‒
32
& 34
2
in the second ‒
33
& 35
until
32 repeated words ‒
1
& 65
constraints
might make nostalgia
rot
on memory's vine
7
Peter
Ganick took it right away
for
his small chapbook project
and
when i discovered
broken
constraints
he
was unfazed
I
only knew
I
liked the poems, he said
so
if revision is your wish
of
course you may go ahead
(words
to that effect in emails
swallowed
by antiquity)
8
an
editor who saw value in these lines
gently,
candidly declined later work
fostered
this poet's imagination and craft
and
many others, too, whether he took your poems
or
not ‒
you knew you had his serious attention
a
treasure sorely missed
32
I wish the worst
thing I ever did to you
was pointing out the
wrong baby
to your grandparents
at the hospital
the day you were born
and correcting
my mistake only when
someone asked,
"Why is she
wrapped in a blue blanket?"
The next worst thing
I did
was to tell you when
I thought
you were old enough
to laugh
but you weren't.
34
The "deux
chevaux," le toute petite voiture,
tin snail on wheels,
powered by the driver
wrestling two axles
with no shocks
through hairpin
curves
above river valleys
painted by Impressionists,
while nanny and the
baby slung in hammock seats
wired to the roof
sang nursery songs. You were old
enough to laugh
while we were scared ‒
mistake
to rent the car
"for cheap" in Nevers.
1
The obstetrician
said,
"If you don't
want her
I'll take her home
with me."
She said this to all
her first time Moms
She was first herself:
first Woman Board-Certified
Surgeon, shunned
by male colleagues
She only did
"female operations"
to keep the peace. When I dropped
my little brother on
his head twelve years later,
she said I must
forgive myself
for my mistake.
65
My Aunt Jane was
the first person I knew
to
reach 100. She surprised herself
that she outlived
all her male
colleagues
who had shunned her
the first time
they read her mind.
Not one to keep
peace by playing dumb, she
said
she dropped this posed herself and told them
If you don't want
this brain to think,
I'll take her home
with me.
Martha Deed. 65 X 65. small chapbook project. 2006. Pp. 3,
34.
Martha Deed
began studying and writing poetry in 2000 as she wound down her psychology
practice into early retirement. Peter
Ganick published her second chapbook.
She has now published dozens of poems in journals ranging from Shampoo,
CLWN WR and Xexoxial to Earth's Daughters and The
Buffalo News, several more chapbooks and has had many of her poems selected
for anthologies. She has published seven
books, including two poetry collections: Climate Change (FootHills
Publishing, 2014) and Under the Rock (FootHills Publishing, 2019).
