Matthew Hummer
by Best Poem
I.F.
I am the lean mooncalf trapped by wire
with feed enough for wobbly legs to stand.
Unused to meadow weeds,
I sleep on hay-thatched mud
waiting for the day of blood.
Don’t speak to me of yellow-faced daisies.
Before you I could think of things
like antique books, bonsai trees, and fallen temples-
weed grasses root in brick and mortar-
yellow flowers burst from a woody stem.
Now the things I used to love are hollow.
The laughter I had with you is worse than heroin.
I have unknotted my shoelaces and walked into a wall.
I have forgotten the time and lost my watch.
I have talked to the moon, but she did not talk back.
You are opium in black stick licorice.
My teeth are falling out.
Matthew Hummer says: “My daughter used the word ‘awkward’ in the new fashion–to signify that which her peer group considers to be outside the norm. She is ten and starting to realize the demands of conformity that that age invents. I lectured her because it offended me that my intelligent, creative daughter was using a word loosely, as she has heard it used in school and on the Disney channel, because I want her to weigh words with a sacred deliberateness. But then I thought that maybe I am just getting old: thirty-four, well-married, well-housed and well-fed, with a teaching job for as long as I want it. My delusions are falling fast, not the least of which insists that I am a writer.”
Mathew, that was so beautiful, truly. Maybe you can be posted with this (with no name your choice, on my 3/4 done website – this needs to be heard in my quest that people reach out http://www.dearaddict.ca – love to know what you think and on my pages I have some dear addict, thank you again your words are strong and your rhythm right on, cheers, kimberly thanks again
Sorry got cut off. I will post you in the poetry section of our premier web site latest 1st at 6 am I am hoping for 2 days from now. Why poetry in drug addicts website? For me writing is healing, so much so. I need to do a lot of writing, and I love it so it goes hand in hand in my mind with healing and recovering from the disease of drugs and alcoholism. Mathew, thank you for contributing to the website with such a beautiful gift. Your words need to be heard and it’s a shame we do not see the one’s we touch. But there is no doubt someone will be.
Regards,
Kimberly ps majority are showing no names – your preference?
Mathew, Thank You again for participating in dear addicts premier issue. No doubt thre is a lot of work to do – I never realized how much. I will be continuing to construct the sit and wanted to know if I could keep your beautiful poem posted for the jul 15 issue.
Please contact me at fade2gray @ rogers.com
Thank you so much again,
Kimberly Gray
publisher/writer/producer

Mathew, your poem is being received very well, thank you again for joining us in spreading the word of this terrible disease. I always feel poetry is the strongest way to do so, and you have proven that.
Cheers and hugs,
Kimberly