Poetry of Issue #5                        Page 31
Table of Contents	When Yes Is the Highest Jumping Off Point It was like the poet’s drunk sailor catching tigers in red weather * a man jumping from a 16-foot fence at the Bronx zoo into a tiger’s den and how some distances can’t be measured there are no instruments-----                                               once in a ballet class the teacher asked us to turn away from a partner and fall backward into the belief he’ll catch us the distance grew with every second like a monstrous plant became more dangerous and like that night I said yes to him, kept telling myself to jump not think about what lies at the bottom of yes and one other time never said the word but held my breath on it and and fell right through…. my cat lies on my stomach purring in time to my pulse when he spots a bug across the room, and abruptly jumps off or it’s such a beautiful perfect weather day lying on some grassy place, and I catch myself falling into the sky, become the whole day before it turns an about face and there’s that relentless tiger luring me into red weather to try and catch him again the man who said he wasn’t trying to commit suicide but be one with the tiger was called crazy and lucky to have survived with only a few broken bones and puncture wounds survival is often just a matter of degrees *The reference is to “Disillusionment of Ten O’clock” by Wallace Stevens   Linda Lerner __	Five Words he called it the five-star smash up she said sparking off a multi car collision in my head; but it was the word star threw it into something else like maybe an asteroid hitting the earth what we joke about and don’t really believe will happen but I’ve seen it, more than once felt the earth break-up and in a second, not know where I was…what planet are you still here, my friend asked me who repeated what her podiatrist said about breaking five bones in her toes to reset them correctly…something small insignificant, but suddenly you can’t feel the earth beneath your feet   Linda Lerner__	©C.TvM    -PlanetTray- with Birthday Candles