It is time to throw away those things I think
I can’t part with, purge them with the force
of a windmill in a blustering April wind,
not the antiquated kind of windmill that
lallygags in tight circles, but one of those
new ones with blades that slice the sky.
It is time to eliminate my marginal
usefulness and the dithering glut of baggage
produced by so much want, but so little need,
time for that new truck the village rents
to sweep me up in its mechanical arms
and dispose of me without breaking a sweat.
Joan Wiese Johannes
Joan Wiese Johannes has been widely published in journals/anthologies and has three chapbooks and a book of poetry. Her chap Sensible Shoes was the winner of the Alabama Poetry Society’s contest in 2009 and her full-length collection, Lamenting My Failure to Learn How to Tap Dance and Other Missteps will be published by Water’s Edge Press later this year. Winner of the 2011 regional poetry award from the Mississippi Valley Poetry Society, Joan has also received awards from Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Wisconsin People and Ideas, The HAL Contest, Free Verse, and English Journal. She co-edited the 2012 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar and the 2019 Winter issue of Bramble with her husband Jeffrey.
Portage Magazine 