I Don’t Like This Mild Place (1996)

©1996, 2013 by Dallas Denny

Source: Dallas Denny. (1998, Autumn). I don’t like this mild place. Gender Quest, p. 5.

 

 

 

 

 

Gender Quest, Autumn 1998 (PDF)

I Don’t Like This Mild Place

By Dallas Denny

 

I don’t like this mild place

Where the sun is friendly and does not burn

And the waves roll softly onto the shore

Where the rain falls gently, kissing my skin

And the wind is a mere puff on my face

I do not like the cool summers and the warm winters

The nice people and the dogs on leashes

I prefer a darker place

Where the winds rage and the waves crash onto the rocks

Where tempers flare in the broiling midday sun

And youths loiter around my car

Causing me to nervously clutch my purse

Where the ambulances scream through the night

And windowpanes crack from the cold

I would rather be in the swamp, covered with leeches

Than to be stuck here on this lush and manicured lawn

I prefer the desert and sunblistered face

To this brook burbling over moss-covered stones

 

I could spend my life here in this clime

Where there are no summers and no winters

No spring and no fall

Just one nice damn day after another

But the time would run together

My life would seem short

Without the bookmarks of intemperate weather

Like the day it reached one ten

Or the day the hail dimpled the hood of my car

I could stay here forever

But without bookmarks I tend to lose my place