A Welcome Disturbance

Two poems to interrupt your day, in the best way

This week, we celebrate the mess and the silly-fun-ness of life with two poems from Mirth. We hope they make you smile 😊

Poema I by Joan Miro (1968)

Gracious Ruckus

by Kristina Gibbs

Scitter Critters
Scurry Underfloors
Scatter Patters
Scuttle inwalls
Rattle tattles
Ripple throughdoors
Look! In the attic there!
Rambling raccoons roaming.
And there! In the vents!
Squads of squirrels squabbling.
All this round rambunctious rumpus—
What more?
Geese! By grand giggling gaggles!
Something of fowlish folklore.

House in scrambles
Rug all a’tramples
Scuffs, scratches, scribbles,
Teeth, tufts, tittles
Of breadcrumbs, food nums,
And dish drum.

I succumb to this:
The chaotic churning and
Wilderness whir.
The territory garnered by
echoes Go, Make, Baptize.
beckoning in creature crumbles
and bumbles. These humble thrums.

“Surely, community isn't a mess like this?”

A nudgepat on my head.
Wafts of baked bread
“It’s messier,” grins the HomeMaker,
apron splatter lathered
In glue globs of honeyed jams.
“It’s sweeter.”

---

About the author: Kristina Gibbs scribes from the rolling hills of Tennessee, with a B.A. in English Literature. She has been previously published in North of Oxford Review, Zingara Poetry Review, and Months to Years. When she’s not writing, she clambers over hiking trails and paint brushes.

---

Hypothetically

by J. Tullius

I could build a house with puppies;
I could pile them in a line,
Wrap their ears around each other
In a modernist design.

I could tie their tails together
At the corners and the doors,
Hoist a few load-bearing spaniels,
Flatten dachshunds for the floors,

Stack Dalmatians for a chimney
(They are mostly fire proof),
Pin the most absorbent poodles
As the shingles to the roof.

But the kitchen and the bathrooms
Must be tiled with the shells
Of abalones, turtles,
Armadillos, and gazelles.

And the siding must be hieroglyphs
Of chicken feet and goats
Embossing layers of dorsal fins
With sailors’ anecdotes.

Then I'll make a fence of kittens
Using zip-ties and some glue,
Forge a fountain from a toucan
And a baby kangaroo.

And I'll pave the drive with minnows
But I'll irrigate with worms,
Fill the soil with phytoplankton
And the sky with pachyderms.

Then I'll populate the planets
With gastropods and birds,
And I'll saturate the universe
With unpretentious words

Like bifurcate, veridical,
Recalcitrant, inane—
Or otiose, jejune, didactic,
Virtuous, or sane.

Then I'll take the Throne of Asteroids
And wield a sword of flame
And I'll make the distant galaxies
Reverberate my name!

I will subjugate the aliens,
Enslave the human race,
And tattoo every baby
With a picture of my face!

Or

I could calmly eat my supper,
Do my homework, go to bed,
And leave the architecture
To professionals instead.

---

About the author: J. Tullius teaches English in Northern Colorado, where he resides with his wife and children. Poetry, Symbolism, British Literature, and Philosophy of Religion are among his chief professional and personal interests, at least when he is not preoccupied with the fate of his second-tier English football club, Queens Park Rangers. You can find him on Substack here:

Submissions for our Summer issue are now open!

For our summer issue, we invite you to consider the particularities of the people and places you know and love. What might it mean for you us to emulate the “settling down” of Christ? Consider the ethos of writers such as Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, and Marilynne Robinson to inform your work. Don’t shy away from your corner of the world, however unassuming you may consider it.

We accept both poetry and prose submissions. For more information regarding what we’re looking for and how to submit, click the link below.

All our best,
The Clayjar Team