Lynn Guttmann

FATIGUE

Listen to the audio version.

fatigue
is a phantom
who lulls me
with her
rocking horse
lullabies

          come down
          sweet,
          float down into silken damask sheets–
a carpet the color of ice
adorned with a hundred spices

          lay down, my lovely
          stay down, my lovely
          slumber, Sleeping Beauty

          ebony
crows cackle
          blue
jays screech
          bright yellow
butterflies laugh

          lay down, my lovely
          stay down, my lovely
          slumber, Sleeping Beauty

Dali's clock croons,
          Don’t get up.
          Don't get up.

The curtains whisper,
          Keep a closed eye.
The comforter gently reminds me,
          Alas, time & tide brook no procrastination.
The French door shrugs,
          Before I close, you better be up standing.
The pillow declines!

          Prince, my flamboyant Prince,
          come with your flashing sword,
          imbibe a slug of cognac and
          tell phantom Fatigue where to go.

* * *

INSIDE/OUT

Listen to the audio version.

I live within the four walls of myself
motionless with fatigue
silent as a tree in the forest

I sleep in & out of time
from shade into shadow
from shadow into darkness
absent
from my dear ones

          I am that girl in the forest,
          asleep in her coffin of glass
          the lid is my casement
          the walls of my room are its sides

my energy rises up
seemingly unbidden,
fragmentary, unpredictable
then sinks
only to rise again

          I place my palm against the glass
          the casement flies open
          my dear ones kiss my cheek

          We are the sky breathing laughter
          the flowers exploding brightness
          the forest and fields stretching to the horizon

for me this fleeting pleasure
is some times
enough.

Lynn Guttman is an accomplished visual artist whose pastels and drawings have been selected for numerous art shows and festivals over the last five decades. As her fibromyalgia fatigue flareups became more frequent and severe, she decided to retire from her day-job as a municipal engineering director and learned that taking long naps allowed her verbal creativity brain cells to expand. She now finds spontaneous pleasure in gardening, knitting, listening to audiobooks, reading, writing poetry and giggling with grandchildren.