(kk & friends, none of whom are named Fluffy)
FLUFFY
—Taylor Graham, Somerset
I left it on the livingroom carpet
just inside the door
where they can’t miss it. I purr
to their shrieks and pointings
till master lifts
it by its scrawny tail
between two fingers,
“disposes” of it.
What do they know
of dispositions, desires
niggling as the tooth of mouse
inside walls? In dream
I stalk its ghost
as the moon slants shadows
across a world
humans sleep through.
________________________
Thanks, TG! This is part of Taylor Graham's reminder that the deadline for submissions to Rattlesnake Review Lucky #13 is coming up February 15. Before that, though, send in poems for Snakelets, the journal of poetry from kids 0-12, by February 1. Next VYPER deadline (the journal by folks 13-19) is March 1.
Submissions for Six Ft. Swells:
Rattlechapper and After Hours Poet Todd Cirillo from Grass Valley writes: Six Ft. Swells Press is now accepting poety submissions for the next chapbook in their famed Cheap Shots Poetry Series. This will be a themed issue featuring a collection of the best poetry that reflects those goodtime evenings of drinking, music, and streetlight love affairs, and/or the painful reality of the morning after and the vague remembrance of what may or may not have occurred in the neon night before. Either way, no apologies are given. We believe poetry is meant to be a good time, so we are only looking for poems that explore these themes in an entertaining, fun, humorous, and/or enthusiastic manner. We will not accept sappy, depressing, AA recovery, or the evils-of-alcohol poems. Send 3-5 poems with cover letter and SASE to 417 Neal St., Grass Valley, CA 95945 or (preferably) email to Todd & Julie at sixfootswells@yahoo.com; please use “Bottoms Up” in the subject line. Poems should not exceed 40 lines; previously-published okay if indicated. Deadline is March 16, 2007. Info: www.myspace.com/sixftswells
Addendum to tonight's calendar:
Tonight (Tues., 1/23), Indigo Moor will be reading at The Bistro on 3rd & F Sts. in Davis, 8:30 PM. Indigo is a 2003 recipient of Cave Canem’s Writing fellowship in poetry and Vice President of the Sacramento Poetry Center and editor for Tule Review. He is the author of Tap-Root, part of the Main Street Rag Editor’s Select Poetry Series. Winner of the Vesle Fenstermaker Poetry Prize for Emerging Writer, Indigo was also a 2005 T.S. Eliot prize finalist. He has received scholarships to the Summer Literary Series in St. Petersburg, Russia; the Idyllwild Summer Poetry Program; the Indiana University Writer’s Conference; and the Napa Valley Writer’s Conference. His work has appeared in the Xavier Review, LA Review, Mochila Review, Boston University’s The Comment, the Pushcart Prize-nominated Out of the Blue Artists Unite, Poetry Now, The Ringing Ear, the NCPS 2006 Anthology, and Gathering Ground. He also has a littlesnake broadside from Rattlesnake Press.
_______________________
PIECE OF CAKE
—Taylor Graham
Have your cake and eat it
before it’s snatched away.
So said the mothers,
putting on pinched faces
in the dark before dawn.
We could hear them descend
the stairs to get
the fire going.
As they creamed the sugar
into margarine,
or whipped the batter,
they recounted wars
and famine.
We never got up early enough
to know how it was.
They pulled the corners
of their lips tight
to carve the sweet
wedges. Eat,
they said, before
it’s gone.
______________________
Trümmerfrauen
—Taylor Graham
The rubble-wives are stooped against the wind,
gathering broken bricks that once were wall,
re-engineered now by the whims of war.
Come see what’s left from bombs and fire and war:
an endless winter, famine, bitter wind
that sings through ruined whistle-stops of wall.
Look, brick by brick they improvise a wall—
what husbands built who won’t come home from war.
Is that the piping of their breath, or wind,
chill wind chanting, through walls, the oaths of war?
_______________________
One final note: Those of us who know Sacramento Poet and Publisher James DenBoer and his lovely, vivacious wife Leah will be saddened to know that she passed away Sunday. James is accepting letters and e-mail right now, but not phone calls.
——
Leah Zeff DenBoer
June 20, 1932 — January 21, 2007
Gone, gone,
gone beyond,
gone altogether beyond.
O what an awakening!
(from The Heart Sutra)
——
Addresses: James DenBoer/ 330 N Street #18/ Sacramento, CA 95814 or
jamesdb@paperwrk.com/ www. paperwrk.com
_______________________
—Medusa
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry, photos and art, and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com 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.)
