DRUMSTICK IN SUMMER HEAT
—Marie J. Ross, Stockton
Brown sugar cone sweet honey flavor;
thin chocolate coating atop a nutty valley
of delectable vanilla.
“Do your chores” Mom would say;
“and there will be a shiny quarter for your efforts.”
Dishes done, floor swept, flower garden watered,
ready, ready, ice cream here I come.
I would skip to the corner market hearing the creak
of floor slats as I entered;
slide the refrigerated compartment door open;
reach down into the frost and grabbed a drumstick—
my favorite ice cream treat.
I could taste delicious scrumptious bites before I tackled
its iconic wrapper.
Summer heat:
she punched at nut clusters; they fell from chocolate as if in
a ring of boxers—my white blouse the soiled garment of Mom's
impending shrill.
__________________
More publishing opportunities:
•••Song of the San Joaquin, a California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc. publication, accepts submissions of poetry having to do with life in the San Joaquin Valley of California. This area is defined geographically as the region from Fresno to Stockton, and from the foothills on the west to those on the east. Send typed manuscripts to: Editor, Song of the San Joaquin, PO Box 1161, Modesto, CA 95353-1161. Deadlines: September 15 for Fall, December 15 for Winter. Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for return of unused poems and/or notification of acceptance. Be sure your return envelopes have the right amount of postage. Notification time may range from three weeks to three months. Send up to three poems per issue, name and contact information on each poem. E-mail submissions accepted but please put all identification on each separate poem including mailing address. Poem length is limited to 40 lines. Please send a three- to five-line bio. For more information e-mail cleor36@yahoo.com or call (209) 543-1776. Writers retain all rights. Your submission of manuscripts is considered permission for one-time publication plus publication on our website and/or our calendar. If you do not wish to be considered for these please let us know in your cover letter. The editors reserve the right to correct punctuation and spelling. Every effort will be made to contact the poet in regard to such changes. Payment is one copy of the issue in which your work appears. For samples of poetry from previous issues, see www.ChaparralPoets.org/SSJarchives.html/. Or send for copies: a single issue is $5.00, the annual subscription $18. Send to address above. Make checks out to Song of the San Joaquin.
(Hint: you don't actually have to live in the San Joaquin Valley to write about it...)
•••California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc. Monthly Contest:
Prizes $25, $15, $10. Except where otherwise indicated, poems are limited to 28 lines of text, not including the title or space following the title. Fee: $2/poem OR 3 poems/$5. (Make checks out to CFCP, Inc.) There is no limit to the number of poems submitted each month with the appropriate fees. Poems for the monthly contests must be postmarked by the last day of the month for that category. For those entrants who use a post-office that does not date-stamp mail, a written date beneath the return address will suffice. All forms accepted for all categories, within line limits.
Send TWO copies of each poem with author's name and address front upper right corner on ONE copy only. Put no identification on the second copy. Poems must not have previously been awarded a money prize. If previously published please state where. Print contest month on outside of mailing envelope, at the front right top corner of both copies of each poem. If you wish to receive a winners’ list, please send SASE with proper postage and note the contest month on the envelope.
Send entries to Cleo Griffith, Monthly Contest Editor, CFCP, Inc., 4409 Diamond Court, Salida, CA 95368. Info: cleor36@yahoo.com/. (209) 543-1776.
2008 SUBJECTS FOR MONTHLY CONTEST (followed by judge's name):
AUGUST: Pearls and Platinum (Cynthia Bryant)
SEPTEMBER: What I should have said (June Saraceno)
OCTOBER: Boredoms (12 lines or less) (Lora Zill)
NOVEMBER: Spangles and tangles (judge TBA)
DECEMBER: NO CONTEST
___________________
MOVING FRED'S OUTHOUSE:
GERIATRICS OF PINE
—Michael Ondaatje
All afternoon (while the empty drive-in
screen in the distance promises)
we are moving the two-seater
100 yards across his garden
We turn it over on its top
and over, and as it slowly
falls on its side
the children cheer
60 years old and a change in career—
from these pale yellow flowers emerging
out of damp wood in the roof
to become a room thorough with flight, noise,
and pregnant with the morning's eggs,
a perch for chickens.
Two of us. The sweat.
Our hands under the bottom
then the top as it goes
over, through twin holes the
flowers, running to move the roller, shove,
and everybody screaming to keep the dog away.
Fred the pragmatist—dragging the ancient comic
out of retirement and into a television series
among the charging democracy of rhode island reds
Head over heels across the back lawn
old wood collapsing in our hands
All afternoon the silent space is turned
__________________
BEARHUG
—Michael Ondaatje
Griffin calls to come and kiss him goodnight
I yell ok. Finish something I'm doing,
then something else, walk slowly round
the corner to my son's room.
He is standing arms outstretched
waiting for a bearhug. Grinning.
Why do I give my emotion an animal's name,
give it that dark squeeze of death?
This is the hug which collects
all his small bones and his warm neck against me.
The thin tough body under the pyjamas
locks to me like a magnet of blood.
How long was he standing there
like that, before I came?
__________________
GRIFFIN OF THE NIGHT
—Michael Ondaatje
I'm holding my son in my arms
sweating after nightmares
small me
fiingers in his mouth
his other fist clenched in my hair
small me
sweating after nightmares.
_________________
WE'RE AT THE GRAVEYARD
—Michael Ondaatje
Stuart Sally Kim and I
watching still stars
or now and then sliding stars
like hawk spit to the trees.
Up there the clear charts,
the systems' intricate branches
which change with hours and solstices,
the bone geometry of moving from there, to there.
And down here—friends
whose minds and bodies
shift like acrobats to each other.
When we leave, they move
to an altitude of silence.
So our minds shape
and lock the transient,
parallel these bats
who organize the air
with thick blinks of travel.
Sally is like grey snow in the grass.
Sally of the beautiful bones
pregnant below stars.
____________________
AT MIDNIGHT
—Ted Kooser
Somewhere in the night,
a dog is barking,
starlight like beads of dew
along his tight chain.
No one is there
beyond the dark garden,
nothing to bark at
except, perhaps, the thoughts
of some old man
sending his memories
out for a midnight walk,
a rich cape
woven of many loves
swept recklessly
about his shoulders.
Seed of the Week: After midnight:
This week, send me your poems about the wee hours: Cinderella's return, what went on at the drive-in, nightmares, sweet dreams, howlings under the moon (what is the dog barking at?). Or, if you're like me, the five o'clock shadows—cold chills about looming bills and all those coulda/woulda/shouldas. Send your poems to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. Or let the ideas percolate, send 'em later—no deadline on Seeds of the Week.
__________________
Today's LittleNip:
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
—Chinese proverb
__________________
—Medusa
SnakeWatch: What's Up With Rattlesnake Press
The Snake will be snoozing through July and August, leaving Medusa to carry on alone. Then on September 10, we shall burst back onto the scene with Thirteen Poems, a new chapbook from Patrick Grizzell; #2 in Katy Brown's series of blank journals (Musings2: Vices, Virtues and Obsessions); a littlesnake broadside (Wind Physics) from Jordan Reynolds; plus Issue #19 of Rattlesnake Review (deadline is August 15). Meanwhile, look in on Medusa every day, and, for heaven's sake, keep sending stuff! The snakes of Medusa are always hungry...
Medusa's Weekly Menu:
(Contributors are welcome to cook up something for any and all of these!)
Monday: Weekly NorCal poetry calendar
Tuesday: Seed of the Week: Tuesday is Medusa's day to post poetry triggers such as quotes, forms, photos, memories, jokes—whatever might tickle somebody's muse. Pick up the gauntlet and send in your poetic results; and don't be shy about sending in your own triggers, too! All poems will be posted and a few of them will go into Medusa's Corner of each Rattlesnake Review. Send your work to kathykieth@hotmail.com or P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726. No deadline for SOW; respond today, tomorrow, or whenever the muse arrives. (Print 'em out, maybe, save 'em for a dry spell?) When you send us work, though, just let us know which "seed" it was that inspired you.
Wednesday (sometimes): HandyStuff Quickies: Resources for the poet, including whatever helps ease the pain of writing and/or publishing: favorite journals to read and/or submit to; books, etc., about writing; organizational tools—you know—HandyStuff! Tell us about your favorite tools.
Thursday: B.L.'s Drive-Bys: Micro-reviews by our irreverent Reviewer-in-Residence, B.L. Kennedy. Send books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to him for possible review (either as a Drive-By or in future issues of Rattlesnake Review) at P.O. Box 160664, Sacramento, CA 95816.
Friday: NorCal weekend poetry calendar
Daily (except Sunday): LittleNips: SnakeFood for the Poetic Soul: Daily munchables for poetic thought, including short paragraphs, quotes, wonky words, silliness, little-known poetry/poet facts, and other inspiration—yet another way to feed our ravenous poetic souls.
And poetry! Every day, poetry from writers near and far and in-between! The Snakes of Medusa are always hungry.......!
_________________
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events, to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.) Medusa cannot vouch for the moral fiber of other publications, contests, etc. that she lists, however, so submit to them at your own risk. For more info about the Snake Empire, including guidelines for submitting to or obtaining our publications, click on the link to the right of this column: Rattlesnake Press (rattlesnakepress.com). And be sure to sign up for Snakebytes, our monthly e-newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on all our ophidian chicanery.
