MY SWAGGER
Mary Biddinger
the loop they played to make it sound like a diner
in the studio, the entire neighborhood, one guy’s shirt
causing chaos around the corner, debasing the sky
of its antique linens, the kind that bragged how many
once inched across then reconsidered, rolled over
the way that I don’t allow you, so flip the light off
in the birdhouse before mathematics destroy us,
pluck our rivets, and you say there’s this place on my
neck, it’s a tragedy, and the neck is not yours but
mine, not that we have territories, that’s artificial,
unsexy, and when they talk about us it’s mostly me
talking back, and so what, because I once crossed
a river that would’ve kept me forever, and I declined.
one takes one’s place in a pose
Aby Kaupang
another has vacated one is
birthed by lending forms
to the forces of one’s birth
every beginning then requires a smudging
a giving off of the pelt near the seem
a new glass for the squinting of the eye
a place for ritual a body crossable a border crossed
{we are afraid too of finding
astonishment unsurpassable
like joy—total and totally new}
Toss the Famous Person Cards Into the Fireplace
Becca Klaver
the family
reenacts
its one
sublime &
one terrible
memory
they have
always
refused
the right
words for
things
hot-poke
each other
for lilting
TV voices
for trying
to fade out
into a
real world
decked in
any frock
that
belongs
Montage Our Way through Winter
I'll use my get out of jail free card
and my good credit. A stranger
called me a whore in the subway
I saw a rat I got lonely I bought shoes
and ate ice cream I drank all the coffee
so I made more and I slept it all off.
I didn't talk to you all day. If we
montage our way through winter,
I can wear my Little House on
the Prairie boots while we pretend
we do real work like chopping wood
or boiling pails of water, and I'll lift
my skirt to step over a puddle just
for the ceremony. There will be
moody string music, no voice-over;
the audience will see my hair go a little gray.
Would you like to be a power couple?
Come spring, we could arrive in any new town
and between your neckties and my rhetoric,
we could run a successful mayoral campaign.
Lullaby
Dana Teen LomaxThe directive as I remember it
was to yell epithets
at a tree
and stand back
to watch the results
keeping an eye on
limbs & leaves
the surrounding grasses
any change in light
to take in a reaction
projections, reactivity
so many wars diverted
[mary is pregnant when]
Pattie McCarthy
mary is pregnant when the mayflower
leaves leiden mary gives
birth to a stillborn son only ten months
after burying an unnamed child
mary gives
birth to a stillborn son while still at anchor
in plymouth harbor friday 22 december
1620 mary already
has two daughters named mary & remember
mary dies that first winter (her husband later
marries mary's daughter fear) her daughter
mary dies at 83 the last surviving
mayflower passenger
mary a child four the product
an adulterous relationship is placed
under the care of mary mother of love & wrestling &
fear & patience mary
(a child) dies that first winter
mary whose father died in provincetown
harbor becomes an orphan that
first winter mary an orphan of fourteen
pressure to marry six eligible
men for every woman & girl after
that first winter
the only other mary on board dies
soon after her husband died
Christmas in Norway
Sarah Sarai
Nora the door-slammer
knows every ridge of
Torvald's thumb.A regular Sacajawea
is she, tracking
her way from out under.
Ahead a few steps, a thoroughly nice woman,
thoroughly my age
calls watch outs for cars
and slush. Thank you, Sacajawea.
She laughs. How many years
since I heard Sacajawea,
Lewis and Clark, Torvald.
I'm not well-researched.
knows every ridge of
Torvald's thumb.A regular Sacajawea
is she, tracking
her way from out under.
Ahead a few steps, a thoroughly nice woman,
thoroughly my age
calls watch outs for cars
and slush. Thank you, Sacajawea.
She laughs. How many years
since I heard Sacajawea,
Lewis and Clark, Torvald.
I'm not well-researched.
I'm lazy.
What I know for sure is old.
Ibsen wrote a great scene.
I have a decent hold on
western culture against
much of which
I'd like to slam a door.Ibsen wrote a great scene.
I have a decent hold on
western culture against
much of which
Little's known of
Sacajawea's life after Lewis and
Clark opened up the west,
so rich in natural assets.
Sacajawea's life after Lewis and
Clark opened up the west,
so rich in natural assets.
Krystal, I like that weird "card-playing" hit both of the beginnings of our poems!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog *_*!!
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