blinds askew
reveal blue
wind’s been through
the night
Poem: Sho(v)e|s
my revolution wears dirt like lipstick
and god d|ess the blood is gorgeous
if you'd just get close enough to taste my scrapes
under gauze & plaster
I fell on the ice again
in practical shoes
I'm not authentic — just clumsier than you
gagamama gold your shoes
while I scrape mud from soles
we made you
my boobs are deadly too
suffocation instead of flame
I don't need to be a cyborg
but I am
playing one in bed
to be ugly
to be human, barely
to be grotesque
how often must I cut my hair
to repair split ends
into artifice?
once you're heeled you can't control
falling more than my feet
can change the snow
Written in response to Big Tent Poetry’s Monday Prompt for 3 January 2011 (aka my birthday).
Fiction: Antlers and Venison
Originally written for 52|250 challenges, my linked pieces of flash fiction “Antlers” and “Venison” have now been published in Cliterature Journal’s Appetite issue. Will this appearance be enough to get me kicked out of the serious veg*n club? We’ll find out!
Poem: Drinking Games
enough whiskey
for the vampire
to get drunk
off me
enough wine
to believe he prays
for my forgiveness
enough beer
to cry in stranger’s lap
—your eyes look dark
—we’ve been out all night
not enough champagne
to make connection last
or get the memories off of me
Written in response to Big Tent Poetry’s Monday Prompt for 29 November 2010.
Related articles
- Book Review: Designs on the Body by Lyn Reeves (seattlepi.com)
- Interview with poet Sarah Wardle (frontierpsychiatrist.co.uk)
- Poetry Pairing | Dec. 2, 2010 (learning.blogs.nytimes.com)
Poem: What Keeps Me Awake
his bones resurface from the ashpit
whenever I think I've crushed
his final nib & forklifted
more lush flames onto his grounds
last week it was a hand
passed itself up through char
& cupped compacted crater lip
clunk clunk thud
like a catfish that won't die
for several hammer swings to head
it flopped & flipped its way past roots
which w(oul)d've recoiled
if they c(oul)d
long ago—cedars don't believe
in vengeance
don't understand
how remembered fires
are passed by force of skin
to skin & spread
if not contained
by lighting them again
Written in response to Big Tent Poetry’s Monday Prompt for 22 November 2010.
Related articles
- A Poem For Thursday (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
- Friday Poem (3quarksdaily.com)
Poem: Deciduous, a Top-Floor Flat
rain breaks
clouds too dark to see on dark
and fills the roads with silence
pain draws thighs to abdomen
fights seek their end in silence
rain breaks
against the sunlight,
taps windows if there's wind
clouds too dark to see on dark
obey like kites
battered by rain that drowns red maple leaves
and fills the roads with silence
Written in response to Big Tent Poetry’s Monday Prompt for 15 November 2010.
Related articles
- The Saturday poem: For Pat Kavanagh by Craig Raine (guardian.co.uk)
- John Lundberg: The Poetry of Patti Smith (huffingtonpost.com)
- Two New Poems by Brett Fletcher Lauer (theawl.com)
- Winners Announced for Ninth Annual War Poetry Contest (prweb.com)
- Dialogue with Doubt (confidentwriting.com)
- Taller When Prone by Les Murray – review (guardian.co.uk)
