Today I am chewing cud, if you will, 

trying to rid myself of trite-isms.

I’m looking for the silver lining,

hoping to find the pearl of the world

even thought most folks

don’t give a tinker’s damn

about trites.  Yes, I am

categorizing, stereotyping my life,

if not yours, too, down-playing 

the real metaphysics of life. 

I’m somewhere between a rock

and hard packed clay, feeling all 

my buttons being squashed.

I’ll start bible cracking my poetry 

books looking for birth lines or life lines 

in single lines, short phrases, simple or

complex words, because I know

ain’t no pot of gold at the bottom

of the robin’s nest, but maybe just

a kernel of truth somewhere 

in the couch cushions.  I’m chewing

all this over trying to find the angel

at the center, elusive though she may be,

non-existent you might even say, 

but it’s a promising direction

if against the wind.  Besides 

Li-Young Lee says to look 

for the universals and seek hope

in all life’s misery.  I think I see that angel 

in the next watermelon rind. 

Melva Sue Priddy