Joy of a Leg Man In the silent heat of lavendered water she trusts me to plow upon sacred ground. I spread a film of aloe cream, glide the razor up her calf, dip into a tender cove on the underside of the knee, slide along the luscious plains of mid-thigh then return to the … Read more
Elton Johns Naked women and the fifth drink of the night I lean into your shoulder and say “You can have sex with any of them But you’ll be dreaming of me.” Well, no, I don’t say it But I want to You hold a five in the air and nod sideways at me … Read more
Red Jacket bought at a tag sale on a whim collar faded and pocket lining worried through she overpaid the jacket was the red of antique passions and banked embers a clerk wrapped it in tissue and twine she took it home there she tried it on over jeans with a black … Read more
Your Friends & Neighbors On a trans-Canadian highway a bus makes its way. Inside, a strange man, a stranger, turns to his neighbor, sleeping, and wordlessly starts sawing away. The passengers, dazed, remain rooted in their seats. By the time the bus pulls over, his work is done and he holds up his handiwork for … Read more
Electric blue Lexus Orange fingernails on the wheel No turn on red Music spills out Bass rattling windows On the corner At the bus stop She clings to his neck Kissing him over and over He stares ahead Arms at his sides His face just touching contempt Transvestite dances through the crosswalk Twirling pearls … Read more
If I remain silent In the face of your aggression It is not because of fear, or shame, or lack of courage on my part. The blood I house Is humble respectful and proud. Too proud to add weight or mental energy, to your argument. If I am silent, While your injustices buzz like flies … Read more
The marble windowsill chilled her fingers as she watched a squirrel scramble, frantic, along her crisp lawn, stopping here and there to dig. Staring past frost-shaded mullions, to stark grey tree trunks, naked against neighbors’ roofs, she watched the squirrel furiously scratching at solid dirt, searching for what he’d left behind, then giving up … Read more
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror (found phrase) after Rilke That first flush of daylight against the hills— the rosy fingers of antiquity still with us, now, leavening the sky across black branches curving, hatched and glorious: alive, as we eke human cries through days and centuries, believe our own … Read more
Build a Better Salad For Annie Kantar All text taken from the July 2005 issue of Redbook Want some advice? You’re no fun any more but all the great taste remains, excreted in human milk, sour cream, female pain, ejaculation failure. Seems like a healthy marriage? … Read more
TWO OF US AT THE SISTINE CHAPEL So love is less in your thoughts these days than the mighty thrust of God’s power. Your head is in the heavens, mine’s mesmerized by body parts. Poor old Michelangelo, such an ugly pug, his nose so flattened the historians tell us, that his forehead overhung … Read more
Our love is the night sky – the way it looks like cotton stretched over a bruise. L stands for the lithium stars you pointed to as we sat on sand in Kawai. We used to laugh like all of Spain’s church bells going off at once. Two lowercase l’s standing side by side, I … Read more
Born in 1939 in Maryland, John Fahey pioneered the use of traditional country and blues finger picking to showcase the acoustic steel string guitar as a solo instrument that could play a mix of traditional and non-traditional musical genres. He collaged ideas associated with Bartok, Charles Ives, Indian and Gamelan music, Tibetan chanting and western … Read more
The iron treadles rock and doven in the flatiron shadows, pressed air and piece work. Hungry hands move like birds. Every week the girl who makes the least gets fired. You march arm and arm with women from the factory, a banner draped across your chest and you sing. Farbende I used to call you—the … Read more
And then, hooked up to tubes and oxygen, She was screaming, catch me Joey, I’m falling! I picked her up, the heft and weight Of rabbit bones wrapped in silk, I’ve got you Rose I’ve got you. There were things I wanted to ask her, But she was calling me by her brother’s name. It … Read more
My grandmother performed a one-man show she played the role of father, mother and spiritual confidant God stood on standby just in case grandma couldn’t give the role of father justice But she must have done okay because no matter how many times I asked, he never stepped in I used to wonder if it … Read more
I skinned myself alive, unfastened tendons, pulled out veins, unwove muscles, slid out lymphnodes, took out organs, removed glands, disassembled my skeletal system, took apart my brain, deconstructed my heart. And there it is, bruised and raw in the sea. ——————— About The Author: John S. Pirres … Read more
Remember the days when you would tease me until my insecurity overflowed and I ended up punching you? Remember how you’d go crying to mom, and get me thrown in my room for an afternoon of exile in my imagination? Those were good days. Remember when summer sunlight was in infinite supply? Remember when our … Read more
——————— About The Author: Dr. Virginia C. Green received her Ph.D. in 2003. Dr. Green’s latest book, Creativity Unwrapped: A Spiritual Path to Making Money Making Art provides insight and adventures that help the artist bring treasured creations out of the closet. Today, she has a private therapy practice in Los Angeles. She is on … Read more
Although I sympathize with him and understand his childhood, and all the fear and pain; and although I have a story of my own which seems to me triumphant, his feelings are all that matter. About the Author: Catina Slade still enjoys word play ever since she wrote a poem for a childhood friend which … Read more
for Lawrence King, 1992-2007 Teens bully deans, bash desks like Queens christen ships, graduation gowns break out in a gospel song, to heal neglected punched lips; boys grow … Read more
A Poem of Premonition: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 The crows collect in front of my window. They call for souls to make a widow. Alerting me, the signs are near. Their caws and claws and passing fears. I stir, I wake, I feel un-right. The souls have lost another fight. I sway and drop at … Read more
My clarinet squeaked in a chorus of sick geese. No hope of migration. Ann-Marie was the princess. Spiky hair, holey jeans. Mickey Mouse bounced on her bosom-parade in the hall. Tara flanked her like a glossy-lipped guard dog. Keeping the riff-raff away. She tortured the school’s only Mexican girl. “Hey monkey-face, Is it true that … Read more
We were seventeen when I paid for my best friend’s abortion, helped answer the doctor’s questions, drove her to my house, lay by her side while she slept. A coworker had her tubes tied after her second C-section, said her husband always wanted girls. The janitor no longer says my name, only: So, are … Read more
We celebrate New Year’s Eve in San Salvador, city of hammocks, where streets are littered with firecrackers, wicks, and ash. Dogs run loose, no collar or tag. Isabel tries to control her hair, twist it into rows, slick with gel, bobby-pinned, but one strand betrays her in every picture, defies her hand. Free to pace … Read more
When he wakes up and complains about your coffee,
just smile. Show no concern that it’s seven o’clock,
and he’s out the door, rushing toward
the nubile barista at Café Amor.
