Said and Done, poem by Ana Maria Caballero (Self-Portrait Poetry Series)

SAID AND DONE
by Ana Maria Caballero

I fear my capacity to guide
Mistake toward fulfillment

At times, I blame:

          The flurry of misprint,
          of crisis to unscramble;

          The renewed promise
          of classic self-improvement;

          The flat-water buoyancy
          of fresh peace.

Other times, I blame:

          This devotion
          to words and their construction –

          How they unsay as they say –
          How they commit to purpose as thought –
          How they slay aim through speech –
          How they make me prove and reprove this power –

          This lack.

IMAGE: “Manaña” by Ed Ruscha (2009), from his On the Road Exhibition at The Hammer Museum (2011) featuring words from Jack Kerouac‘s novel of the same name.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ana Maria Caballero has worked in finance, journalism, wine importation, and even for the Colombian government before recently becoming a mom. Now she focuses her efforts on writing poetry and book thoughts, available at thedrugstorenotebook.co. Her work has appeared in Big River Poetry Review, Elephant Journal, East Coast Ink, Really Systems, Aviary Review, CutBank, Ghost House Review, Dagda Publishing, Toasted Cheese Literary Journal, Boston Poetry Magazine, as well as other publications, and is forthcoming in Pea River Review and Smoking Glue Gun. She also writes a weekly poetry post for Zeteo Journal’s “Zeteo is Reading” section. She lives in Colombia.