A Poem by Linnea Harper

Ooh La La La

 

For myself, having thought on important

topics, I fear the practice has done me little

good, there is so much I can’t remember

and the rest has been imagined away.
 

But stay. We may yet discern

some value in this communion.

Let us delve together into the dusty

stacks where memory and invention

meet and make amends
 

until we are one with the cadence

and the voices we have found

turn to honey in our mouths

the tea is hot, and the toast

pops up in perfection.
 

coda: When engaging in any brouhaha

          from writing to dancing the cha cha cha

          I don’t like to bring

          too much brain to the thing

         I like living on love and ooh la la la

Linnea Harper lives on a tidal slough on the Oregon coast, near the mouth of the Alsea River. Her poems have been published here and there, including in CALYX, and she has been a finalist for the Bunchgrass Prize. Before she was a poet, she was a social worker, and before she was a social worker, she was a poet.