I'm No Dorothy


Dorothy skipped
her way to OZ
with her feet
buried in Kansas.

It will take a few more
city lights before I can dance
the memory of sunflowers
from my heels.

Gossip keeps opening a diary
truth is never allowed to erase.


©Susie Clevenger 2016

Photographer ~ Alfred Cheney Johnston



Comments

brudberg said…
Bot the memory of sunflowers has to be wonderful... never mind Oz, that's overrated.
Anonymous said…
Sad truth. Beautifully espressed
Love your second verse in particular.
Anonymous said…
City innocence -- Dorothy dancing in the Emerald City--demands a maturity crossed by faithfulness to one's original spirit, and the difference between it and juke joint wizardry is like that between truth and gossip. Sorry if I nailed the wrong foot.
Debi Swim said…
I'm with Rosemary- love your second verse.
Kerry O'Connor said…
The second stanza made me see things from a slightly older Dorothy perspective, the one who had her adventures in Oz and must now grow up in the real and more prosaic world.
Kim M. Russell said…
Love the simplicity of the form with the complicity of the concept, Susie. I especially love the reference to sunflower and the wisdom in those lines:
'Gossip keeps opening a diary
truth is never allowed to erase.'
Anonymous said…
something very fresh and unique about your style - loved these dancing lines
I felt like hopping along with the poem! :)
Wow, this was so wise and knowing.. Loved the image of Dorothy and the battle between truth and gossip. Love you, girl and am thankful for you!
That last stanza is powerful. Great poem!
Magaly Guerrero said…
The realities of growing up always show a strange sort of magic... Time is such a trickster, when it comes to reminding us what was real and what became so.
Sanaa Rizvi said…
Those last lines really stir my heart 💕
Jim said…
A lot of truth in those last lines. No wonder some are now living in the Land of Oz. (Have you noticed that my profile picture is of me sitting in a wagon chatting with Mr. Tin Man beside the yellow brick road? Mrs. Jim took it at the Rose Emporium.)
..
Unknown said…
I hope this finds you and yours doing well. May we display your header on our new site directory? As it is now, the site title (linked back to its home page) is listed, and we think displaying the header will attract more attention. In any event, we hope you will come by and see what is going on at SiteHoundSniffs.com.