David Braden

Gertrude and Alice in the Garden

 

I would like if I could would like would I like to write like if I could like Gertrude Stein

 

If I was and I am not Gertrude, if I was and am not Stein I would not if I would or would

 

not if I could tell the differences between us if I was like her if I liked her would I read

 

her would I like to be liked by her would or could I write like her lines could I follow her

 

lines or would I get lost in them would they loose themselves in me unwinding like I am

 

Gertrude am Stein am David am Braden not I not her not like me or you inside her we

 

are inside her lines her mind her time the sunny afternoon I was reading her life like

 

blooms in the garden we both liked to wander among the word flowers named sunny

 

would it be hard hard to follow her follow her wondering not in a line or row but moving

 

always wondering blowing breathing in labyrinths of ifs and other wild woulds with

 

beasts would we get out again if we could would we ever leave again ever same again

 

never like her again leave her and Alice leave her with Alice leave Alice let Alice return

David Braden lives and works in Oakland, California. His poems have appeared in: Stone Country, Green Zero, SPIT, Blood Over Oil, Red Dancefloor, Protea Poetry Journal, The Gopherwood Review, Verve, Shampoo, Poethia: writing on-line, Moria, Aught, and Word/For Word. Recently he has been working with sound poems and environmental recording. Text and sound work can be found at his website: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~barleydog/poems.html

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