Don Feliz
THE WEDDING PLAYER
—Don Feliz, Sacramento
A tall man in a new suit carries a box like an
elongated attaché case into the decorated room.
He chats with the hosts, ignoring the others,
then opens his keyboard case and gets a chair.
The room brightens with Pachelbel’s Canon in D
as the guests gather, Wagner’s Bridal Chorus
paces the engaged couple through the room
to face the justice of the peace. The music stops.
The new couple joins their friends for cake.
The tall man plays lively video game themes.
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Thanks, Don! Don Feliz was born in Santa Rosa and grew up in Fresno and Bay Area counties. He served in the US Army, Berlin Brigade, when the Wall was built. He has lived in Sacramento since 1968 and started writing poetry in 1995. Don is a member of California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc. and the Sacramento Poetry Center. He has been published in Brevities, Medusa’s Kitchen, Poet’s Forum Magazine, Rattlesnake Review, and The Gathering (the Ina Coolbrith Circle Poetry Anthology, 2005 and 2007) and has won numerous prizes for his poetry.
In 2005, Don authored a littlesnake broadside for Rattlenake Press entitled Switchback Path. He and his wife, Elsie Whitlow Feliz, were co-editors of the first three annual Free Wheeling chapbooks for the Towe Auto Museum, and in 2008 they co-authored their chapbook, To Berlin With Love, from Rattlesnake Press, based on their Berlin experiences. To Berlin with Love and Switchback Path are available at The Book Collector or online at rattlesnakepress.com/. Don is retired; he and Elsie have two grown daughters and are active in the Sacramento poetry community. They are both frequent contributors to Rattlesnake Review; watch for their poetry in the next issue, due out in mid-September.
__________________
FIVE DRESSES
from one bolt
of black silk:
empty sleeves,
padded shoulders,
hems cross the floor,
wind around
the next skirt,
collars graze
the ceiling,
a row of shades
trying to open
a door into
the darker night
—Don Feliz
__________________
LUNCHTIME FOR SENIORS, 1954
—Don Feliz
A dozen sports stars show off block letters
for football, swimming, track, and tennis.
They laugh and joke about sports, classes,
girls, school dances and graduating at last.
Big wheels in government, honor students,
scholarship winners, their futures assured.
They make room for friends to share the bench
where only seniors can sit—brothers for a year.
__________________
LIKE STARTLE
—Tom Goff, Carmichael
It starts like startle,
in mental star thistle,
the obsessive hiss,
the pugilist’s flinch,
though the whistleby fist
is only a purple finch
out of the bristle, the
raspberry bramble.
For me, when the voice
in my head in the men’s room
stall threatens to squall,
building thunderhead force
like the soprano’s head tone
or chest voice in Elektra,
and compulsion rushes me,
prodding me towards obscenities
I longed and dreaded
to hurl in church as a child,
or here, with mirror-shattering
force, at the college, to blood
the knuckled fist amidst
a brownout, a brain mist,
I pull back, hoping these
urges and surges to overboard
will sink, drain down into the sink;
take courage as a cornered one will,
in recollections, re-collections,
of self and dearest other
in the darkened park, where,
just last Friday, under a moonful,
a moonspell, great blue herons
described great grays, great blacks
over the umber pebbles;
where a brace of owls
flapped up alarmed from
scraps they’d begun to divide;
where beavers traced
arcs and circles in the soft river
like aerial photos of aircraft carriers;
and, in the camera in my wife’s hands,
the round thick yellow moon
yielded elastic swoop-shapes we must call
moonbends. Then, it was over,
as we parted the blackberries,
seeing the skunks reclaim dominion,
and came home to a safe place, safe
till the work resumed,
till the jangled head-voices
gonged down on paving-stones,
little iron portcullises,
around their own tolling clangor.
The one that (hopefully) got away...
Thanks, Tom! Tom Goff was responding to last week's Seed of the Week: "It all started..." And here is Taylor Graham's response to this week's SOW: The One That Got Away:
ON THE PLATFORM
—Taylor Graham, Somerset
Bitter-melon on the tongue.
Wave as if at random
at the train that’s leaving.
Is she looking back,
who’s bound away?
A study-year abroad looks great
on resumés. But
a California girl returns,
of course, to swales of poppies
opening their golden cups
in sunlight—scenes
she tried her best in German
to describe.
She never promised
anything, in any language, spring
to fall. No pledge of Treue.
She had a round-trip
ticket, after all.
__________________
Today's LittleNip:
HAPPINESS
—Stephen Dunn
A state you must dare not enter
with hopes of staying,
quicksand in the marshes, and all
the roads leading to a castle
that doesn't exist.
But there it is, as promised,
with its perfect bridge above
the crocodiles,
and its doors forever open.
__________________
—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.......!
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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.
