My Creepy Lair by Sue Blair -------------- Concrete encroaching upon nature I bring nature inside Wood and leaf and furry beast The animals speak to me And I understand More than I understand The politician Come drink lemonade In the cool clear shade In my killer treefort by the stream Listen to the leaves rustle and the crickets chirp nearby the jackhammer brings rabbits fleeing to the nonexistent wild places huddling in the tall grass that I forgot to cut Come be with me And see with me In my baroque palace On the moor I withdraw into books and music Trying to ignore the new strip mall Being built at the corner Like every other strip mall Every other Blockbuster video I wrap myself in the steam of Oolong tea And purple velvet curtains swaying with the breeze from the window Come play with me For a day with me In my haunted castle by the sea A poem recalls a memory of a thought that I once had Or was it more of a feeling? That I was wearing sleeper-feet pajamas Listening to the gravel crunch under my feet at the drive-in playground Eating popcorn and laughing with my brother while we watched James Bond My dad would carry me in and tuck me in With my pink stuffed dog I ask the skull lamps where are the drive-ins? They flicker an answer To the trickling waterfall That it understands