Lucky Thirteen

Somebody noticed that Susan Kelly-DeWitt will have Rattlechap #12 and Victoria Dalkey will have Rattlechap #14; where, they asked, is #13? #13 is me, self-publishing. I decided to deal with the

shouldIpublishmyselforshouldIwaitforsomeonewithmoreprestigetoscoopmeup?

question by putting out a book or two and seeing how I like it. I do like the total control and the immediacy; we'll see if I can live down the stigma of vanity publishing.

Anyway, Why We Have Sternums is Rattlechap #13.1, which means that future kkieth books would be 13.2, etc.—and no rattlechapper has to have the dreaded #13! Here's a sample; this poem won the California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc. Executive Board Award: Jumping Ship, for 2005:


THE HEART IS A RASCALLY TRUANT
—Kathy Kieth, Shameless Hussy, Fair Oaks, CA

One day it purrs along with the program: lump-
thumps cool acquisescence: mutters a mantra of

yes-yes: signs on all the dotted lines: never once
tugs at its arterial leash. Then suddenly one day—

maybe a Saturday, after the leaves are raked, or
a Tuesday, say, just before lunch—the brash

little truant just takes off: jumps ship: violates
all its contracts and makes a brollyhop onto

foreign soil: vacates the premises and defects for
some dancehall trollop or a bait shop in Tahiti

or maybe a motorcycle: decamps and vanishes
into a whole ‘nother life, taking all its bloody

lump-thumps and broken promises and trailing
arteries along for one helluva bumpy ride…


_______________________

The book is at The Book Collector, or write to me and I'll send you one. (And may your heart jump ship in some pleasant port-of-call...)

I hope you're reading poor Medusa now and then; I like getting up in the morning and sending poetry out onto the airwaves. Let me know if you're picking it up. And the "endless march of days" is, well, endless, so send me poems and other poet-phenalia. Guaranteed publication—hell, ya can't beat that!

kk