December 9th: Julie Strand

Alien

Where is the horsebed, the mall square, the sea length equator? 
What words are without eyes?
 
Without clothes she landed.
Maze legs longer, the people mistake
her for a doorframe. Walk through and things
are cloudy. Sense no longer alive. Squint to see
all the better to hear, a language of audience and skies.

Things here taste weird, they mace weird, lace up the face weird. 
They guess a mask or shoe?

Ears stare, hands feel to learn of the what.
Lost and loud, the mouths yell out, 
What are you? Smoke and mirrors and legs
that hide eyes. Words wrap maleus in the pinna
the people listen for light and sight. The alien
she has all the eyes.

From 2004-2010, Julie Strand served as the Education Coordinator at Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee, WI. Currently, she's in the MFA in Creative Writing program at Boise State University and works at The Log Cabin Literary Center. Julie is the author of The Mae West Defense, (Dancing Girl Press, 2009). Her poetry has appeared in Caffeine Destiny, FOURSQUARE Editions, Wicked Alice, Arsenic Lobster, WOMB Poetry, Boo: A Journal of Terrific Things, Weave Magazine and others.