Other Poems

How I Know There’s Magic In Poetry

in way of a response

because it can take the top off my head
without blade & without blood
and blade is not a blade
when it rhymes with glade or staid
—but stayed is staid

because white sand can make me shiver
and ice can turn my freckles into blisters
and ice is ice when it’s blended with espresso
and ice is ice is ice in (non)fiction
and ice
slants slice
into sluice
and the next time you see a pipe
pressed out over the sea
you see nothing’s the same again

because I have made the sun rise with lines that barely scan
on the edge of an industrial town
where the water isn’t blue or green or clear
-ly the kind you’d want to swim in

yet I did, and if my toes weren’t infected
when a mussel sliced them
that is poetry

and this is a translation
of a night that won’t be paraphrased
and if I get the lines just right
I’ll smell the salt & the you
who isn’t you
watching from the safe concrete

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Poem: On Not Writing about the De Anza Rape Verdict

I'm not going to write about it
because nothing changed today

another woman sent home with nothing
more valuable than limp, wrinkled tissue

and I'm not going to write about it
don't ask me to ask

what it means that the women who saved her,
the heroes, could only take her 

to the hospital where World Famous Doctor
would see her just enough to testify

                                               She wasn't
                                               too drunk.

don't ask me to ask if the jury believed
him over the women who saw what happened

or if they just believed Facebook photographs
and a slut can't be raped

I've never held a shot in my cleavage
but I'd had a few margaritas

don't ask me to write about it
don't ask me why I asked me why smiled

outside my flat
days, weeks, months after it happened

I'm not going to write about it
I'm not going to say for the twentieth time

                                               And you wonder why
                                               I don't report it?
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Poem: A Popular Website Puts up a Poll Asking if a Journalist is Responsible for Her Rape

and yes and yes and yes wins, oh yes,
a win thinner than the waning crescent moon

is still a bruise
                        on the arms or the chest of no
                        on the hair or the eyes of no
                        on remembering, on dreaming, on waking
                        no
has been held down by yes
                                              again, again
         and still it's no's bruise

yes isn't even asked
to take ownership
with victory

                        yes, I've been no
on a hotel bed—not public
               not at work
                just sick
                        yes says
I could've stayed home
                                       I loved him, yes
after, briefly, until I taught myself to forget
love, yes
                  and left the country

and all I want to do is trace these yes IPs
find the people behind the yes hands
and make the bruises theirs

                                       and maybe this is the worst
                              that yes has done to me
                              by forcing me beneath

and I've taught myself
too  not to care
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Magdalene & the Mermaids

Magdalene & the Mermaids

Magdalene & the Mermaids

Available From Reviewed at Sample poems at

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  • Check out Oooooooo by tina negus on Flickr
    http://t.co/0dvmFUte
    2012/02/23 01:03
  • Well, this is disappointing. (Neutrino Not Faster Than Light) https://t.co/1DMaWjwx
    2012/02/23 01:48
  • View 2 new photos on my Flickr
    http://t.co/MoFxF70S
    2012/02/23 01:59
  • Burn All the Liars - The Morning News https://t.co/oFG1eIg1
    2012/02/22 20:46
  • Thanks! RT@Beth_Winter: I gave @EKSwitaj +K about Poetry on @klout ”
    http://t.co/6t3KA8zd
    2012/02/22 11:39
  • @Beth_Winter
    You are most welcome! :)
    2012/02/22 11:25
  • @alexpryce100
    the <pre> tags are your friends
    2012/02/22 11:01
  • …and Standard English, apparently.
    2012/02/22 11:41