James Lee Jobe: The Force is With Us

James Lee Jobe has been a force on the No. Cal. poetry scene for years and years as a poet, publisher, reader and all-around sparkplug. He’ll be doing a Rattlechap for Rattlesnake Press at the beginning of next year, but for those of you who can’t wait, here’s a sample:

THE OFFERING

Usually it is a field mouse, but once
it was a full grown rat, that I find dead
on my morning doormat, left there by Kitty.
My wife says, “Maybe she is trying to prove
that she is doing her job.” I smile and nod,
and go for the shovel, but really,
wouldn’t that imply that Kitty somehow knows
that humans expect cats to be diligent mousers?
Certainly I never asked that of her. I prefer
to think that she is seeking approval
for the justice that she has dispensed
upon the intruder. Or that perhaps
murderous Kitty has a compulsion to kill
that cannot be suppressed, and, not caring
for the taste of mouse, she comes to me
for aid in destroying the evidence of her crime,
aid that my shovel and I always provide.
Better still, it could be that Kitty, after being fed
by us for so long, is giving something back
to the family, bringing to the table something
of her own making. “Good Kitty,” I tell her
as I go for the shovel.

Jim will also be reading at The Book Collector (1008 24th St.) this coming Saturday at 8 p.m. And watch for a poem of his in Snake 6, too.

Susan Kelly-DeWitt hosts the 2005 Poet’s Corner Press Chapbook Contest Winner Svea Barrett at the Sacramento Poetry Center tonight at 7:30 p.m. That’s at 25th & R: HQ for the Arts. Info: 441-7395.

She purrs. Svea, I’m sure. But also my printer: Snake 6's are rolling out, even as we speak…

Medusa