Mercury Poetry: Without Warning

August 23, 2014

By Margaret Randall

At the bus stop and out of the corner of my eye
I see myself waiting,
awkward bundle at my feet.
I am wearing the same sky blue fleece
though it hangs looser against my body.
My hair, still long and full and brown,
frames the younger me in her oblivion.

I swerve and almost hit the car to my right,
snap my neck
to get one last glimpse of myself
before people I loved
took what wasn’t theirs,
a child stopped calling home,
and temperature threatened my planet.

Without warning I make a U-turn
and slow way down
to observe every detail
of my younger self.
I even consider a shouted question
might bring an answer
against all mathematical odds.

She looks straight at me and smiles.
I smile back
and keep on driving,
hoping to keep
my appointment with myself.

This poem is from a new collection of poems by Margaret Randall entitled, About Little Charlie Lindbergh, just out from Wings Press. Randall will be reading at Sunday-Chatter at the Kosmos on September 14th at 10:30 and "Resolana Burque: Honoring our Fallen and Healing our City," at the South Broadway Cultural Center at 7:00 PM on September 17th.

(Image of Margaret Randall derived from a 1966 photo by Gordon Bishop.)

This piece was written by:

Margaret Randall

Margaret Randall (1936) was born in New York City but grew up in Albuquerque and lived half of her adult life in Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua. When she returned to the U.S. in 1984 she was ordered deported under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality's McCarran-Walter Act. The government alleged that her writings, "went against the good order and happiness of the United States." She won her case in 1989.

She is a local poet who reads nationally and internationally. Among her recent books of poetry are My Town, As If The Empty Chair / Como Si La Silla Vacia, and The Rhizome As A Field of Broken Bones, all from Wings Press, San Antonio, Texas. A feminist poet's reminiscence of Che Guevara, Che On My Mind, is just out from Duke University Press, a new collection of essays, More Than Things, is out from The University of Nebraska Press, and Daughter of Lady Jaguar Shark, a single long-poem with 15 photographs, is now available from Wings. Her most recent poetry collection is About Little Charlie Lindbergh (also from Wings Press).

Randall resides in Albuquerque with her partner, the painter Barbara Byers, and travels widely to read and lecture. You can find out more about Margaret, her writings and upcoming readings at, www.margaretrandall.org.