#laurarothman

Bathtub

  I lay in a bathtub and

catalogue a life led and a life to lead.

My legs turn red with hot water

and my throat grows parched.

  I wish I could write music to scream and

yell torment torture inequality.

But a poet’s pen speaks in

whispers and murmurs of a note passed

between friends in the back of a classroom.

  Dissonant tunes are banged out on my mother’s

upright piano when no one is home.

I make noise—loud noise to rouse the neighborhood.

Look! I’m here!

  No one but my dog hears and his

inquisitive head peeking through

stair rails is not an affirmation

of my existence.

  I’m just a black and white shape

against a black and white background.

  Will someone kill me here so I can

be immortalized in paint.

A modern Marat in my family’s tub.

  One hundred years later an art historian

might find it.  With astute observation claim:

“Oh, that’s not what she looked like” or

The sodium streetlights burr outside my window,

And the mechanical humming of the 35 Eureka

lulls me to sleep.

  I get that mood indigo when my baby says goodbye.

No music, no riff, no fugue comes pouring from my fingers,

just the steady breathing of my dog

punctuating my existence like an unwavering double bass.

  Downstairs my brothers murmur a soft tenor.

You, you ain’t never been blue.

Their voices, the rhythm of trains and buses,

Carry me swiftly down some urban Lethe.

  The sodium streetlights burr a blaring trumpet solo

And the woman sifting through my trash hits the cymbal

With every aluminum can she finds.

  My final waking exhale echoes through the house.

The city’s tune rumbles to a crescendo and ceases.

Beautiful Symphonic Busker - m4w (financial district)

Montgomery Street BART,

end of the day, our eyes catch

with a beautiful smile.

  But alas you are there only rarely

and I have places to go and things to do.

I would love to meet you.

  Quiet Cashier at Safeway – m4w (twin peaks)

  Safeway checkout late last night,

I was buying milk and an avocado

for breakfast.

  You grinned when I said

“together they make a great stew”

I paid and left, maybe next week?

  Fur Wearer on F – m4m (embarcadero)

  I’ve seen you twice now,

I think you go to the Art Institute.

Why else would you wear fur?

  You make eyes at me, I

can feel it. But you need to

say something to me.

  Great Boots –w4m (Upper Market)

  I walked by you and

commented on your leather rugged

outdoorsman boots.

  Maybe we can hike sometime?

I ride the 37 often