Of Clover and Bees

Carol Louise Moon

DOGS BOTHER ME

especially the dog next door.
I could hear him woowing. He wasn't
woofing, but woowing. Woow. Woow.

I didn't know what it meant.
I didn't know what he meant it to mean.
He wasn't mean, he was just woowing,
whatever that means.

It's not like we woo when we're wooing.
He wags while he's woowing, and
it bothers me when he wags his tail
because it's attached to his spine.

And if he's spinning and whining,
and woowing and wagging that means
his spine is wiggling, and that's
what really bothers me.

I almost died in the hospital last week,
and if I had died and was dead
I never would have met this dog next door.

I couldn't have rung the doorbell and said
"Is that your damned dog woowing so much?"

I now see him spinning in circles
on a circular carpet, and I see those
brown beagle eyes bulging, and I
become ambivalent about his barking.

He's kinda cute, but could
you calm and quiet him?

—Carol Louise Moon, Sacramento

____________________

Thanks, Carol Louise! Carol Louise Moon is a Northern California poet who is affiliated with the Sacramento Poetry Center and the Tuesday Night Workshop in Sacramento. She has been published in Poetry Now, Brevities, and Rattlesnake Review. She has won third place in the monthly California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc. contest and has been published in the organization’s Updrafts. The second edition of her chapbook, Fuzzy Spiral Twist, a book of poems about children, is soon to be released.


This week in NorCal poetry:

•••Monday (12/17), 7:30 PM: Sacramento Poetry Center presents Celtic Women Brigit Truex, Charlene Ungstad and others at HQ for the Arts, 25th & R Sts., Sacramento. Open mic before and after. Host (and Celtic woman) Rebecca Morrison writes: Please join us for poetry, food and drink, broadsides, music and images celebrating all things Celtic—Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Cornish, English, etc. Please join in the open mic with your own Celtic poems. We will be reading poetry from a wide selection of Celtic women poets. We are also putting together a gift basket for Jeanine Stevens (one of our Celtic group) who recently lost her son, so if you have anything for Jeanine, please bring it to the reading.

[Note: there will be no SPC readings Dec. 24 or 31. And there will be no Tuesday Night Hart Center Workshops 12/25 or 1/1.]

•••Weds. (12/19), 6-7 PM: Because of Christmas, poetry comes early in December in Placerville! Join us at the Upstairs Poetry Reading this Weds. at The Upstairs Art Gallery, 420 Main St (2nd floor), Placerville. It's an open-mike read-around, so bring your own poems or those of a favorite poet to share, or just come to listen. No charge.

•••Thurs. (12/20), 8 PM: Poetry Unplugged at Luna's Cafe, 1414 16th St., Sacramento, features Katastrophe from SF (aka Rocco Kyatatos), famous international "Homo Hop" star and lyrical poet who is also a member of the original Sister Spit spoken word group. Plus Sac poets Gene Bloom and Barbara Noble. Free.

•••Friday (12/21), 7 PM: Our House Poetry Reading features Gene Altshuler and Wendy Patrice Williams. Note: new, temporary (December only) location: Event Center at Raley's in El Dorado Hills, 3935 Park Dr. An open mike follows. There is no charge.

•••Sat. (12/22), 7-9 PM: "The Show" poetry series features R&B vocalist Marcia Lewis plus slam champion He Spit Fire, plus NY poet Tantra (www.tantrasmasterwordplay.com). $5, Open mic. The Guild Theater, 2828 35th St., Sacramento. Info: 916-208-POET.

_____________________

FOGDOM
—Carol Louise Moon

Fog is creepy on my skin
impposing its dampness
deep into my pores,

insulting my delicate
blood vessels with threats
of graspness and dread,

skulking as it does with
everything else green
and tan and black. It

is not nice, but impolite,
antigregarious and rude.
If I could, I would shove

it away with my breath,
only to find it clinging to
my teeth inappropriately.

_____________________

THE CARPENTER
—Carol Louise Moon

I wish I had known him
better
the old man
Only this house
remains

and the ivy......
a living vine
of words
so green
I cannot read
his thoughts.

And the window
wide open...

the air whispers
what I cannot read
of the vine

"He is in the wood—
his hands."

______________________

CLOVER
—Carol Louise Moon

Halcyon sky over clover
meadows, clover indeed.

Breath-taking, yes.
But no, not death.

You were the one
who had something
to try for—

a starry sky.

Day ending all too soon
with clover and bees, and
buzzy swarms of questions
and stinging answers.

______________________

—Medusa

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).

SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:

Rattlesnake Review: The new issue of Rattlesnake Review (Sweet 16) is available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento, or send $2 to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you one. The last of contributors' and subscribers' copies go into the mail this week. Next deadline (for Issue #17, due out in mid-March) is February 15. (Sooner than you think!)

New in December! Rattlesnake Press is proud to announce the release of Metamorphic Intervals From The Insanity Of Time, a SnakeRings SpiralChap from Patricia D'Alessandro, and Notes From The Ivory Tower, a littlesnake broadside from Sacramento's Ann Wehrman. And while you're down at The Book Collector, pick up a few poetic Christmas presents, including any of a number of wonderful books and chapbooks, Rattlesnake and otherwise—not to mention A Poet's Book of Days, our first perpetual calendar, featuring the poetry and photography of Katy Brown.

Coming in February: The Snake has crawled into winter hibernation for the rest of December and for all of January: no readings, no books, no broadsides. (Medusa is always awake, however, and will keep posting through most of that time. Send stuff.) Then, on February 13, Rattlesnake Press will roar to life again with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap from Don and Elsie Feliz (To Berlin With Love), plus a new littlesnake broadside from Carlena Wike (Going the Distance), as well as Volume Two of Conversations, B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.