Janet Kuypers read two original poems live at the Cafe in Chicago 07/08/08, at an open mic that didn't even have a microphone. So she projected her voice and read "Now You're Nothing To Me" (wqhich she actually wrote not about anyone in particular, but was inspired to write the poem after watching the Science channel, where they talked about how in the space of an atom there is generally a lot of empty space) and "Dreams 09/07/07".

To learn more about the writing or performing of Janet Kuypers, go to http://www.janetkuypers.com for a complete library of information.

Here are the two poems in their entirety:

--

Now You're Nothing To Me


love is like tap water
free flowing
remember when you were little,
just put a glass under the faucet
quench your thirst

wait a minute,
it's not like that
water isn't free
you even have to pay
for the water in your own home
and
it's not even clean

what you're getting is dirty
and you still have to pay for it

#

you know, they say us humans
are like seventy-five percent water

and when I think of you
and all the time we were together

well, if you're seventy-five percent water
I have to remember
that it wasn't pure and clean and clear
and if this is love, and this was you
it wasn't free
I'm still paying for it

#

when I now think of you
the fact that you made me feel like nothing
and when I think of what you now mean to me
when I think of what you're made of
I have to remember

we're all made of atoms
protons and neutrons wound tightly together in the nucleus
apparently infinitely small
surrounded
at a comparatively vast distance
by occasional tiny electrons
spinning around
keeping their distance
almost like fluff

in a way,
you're like that electron, you know
Spinning around
but keeping your distance

but when I think of you
I have to remember
that you're made of those atoms
with really tiny cores
and those atoms are so filled with space
that you're mostly made of nothing

when I think of you
this is what I have to remind myself

when I think of the nothingness you made me feel
and the fact that you now mean nothing to me
this is how I have to think of you

--

Dreams 09/07/07


I was at the old house
and they were still living there,
they were having people over
and I was outside
toward the end of the driveway

and I can't tell you why I was there,
I didn't know what I was doing

but I saw myself
lifting the windshield wipers
from someone else's car
and then I placed
what look like three
tiny metal marbles
at the bottom sides and center
of the windshield

after I did this
I took one step backwards
and watched the newly-formed
snow and frost on the windshield
start to melt away
because of what I had done

I found this fascinating,
and then I saw the entire windshield
start to shake
so I stepped backwards
away from this car
as the window shook more and more
until the windshield
completely explode from the pressure

I couldn't believe what I just saw
and I was sure someone
from inside the house
heard the noise
so I ran towards the trees
in the ravine to hide

I don't know why I was there
or why I attached these foreign pieces
to some stranger's car
and I couldn't believe
I took part in this
minor form of terrorism

so while I was at the tree line
I floated up in the tree
to stay out of the way
until I thought I saw the lights
in the house change
so I got down onto the ground
where I could see lights change
in the house
which made me think
someone would be coming outside
to see what happened

to see what I had done

so although my feet remained off the ground,
I crawled with only my hands
touching the wooded ground below
like I was almost hovering
and i tried to move deeper into the ravine

I crawled with my hands
over toward to pool outhouse
toward the back yard of the house
and I heard a car,
so I looked toward the diveway
and saw someone
actually coming toward the house,
the car slowing down,
like they were about to park
in the driveway

but I watched the car
and could see two heads in the front seats
one man, one woman
and I could see the woman's head
pointed straight toward me
and she was pointing in my direction

I know I wasn't blending in
with the ravine that surrounded me
and I panicked,
because these strangers
found me

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