Photo courtesy of David Humphreys
SPRUNG SPRING
—David Humphreys, Stockton
Hot cold, hot cold. All last week
was balmy warm, short sleeves
instead of flannel plaid and jackets.
You could see the trees and bushes
shuddering back to life in buds turning
flushed with blossoms popping out
in a few weeks. The warm air rose up
and the winds came in yesterday.
Blew the sky clear as a bell and the
temperature dropped like a rock. Hot
cold, hot cold all the way from now until
the end of March, cursed month I was born
into this stupid yo-yo world. Well, it was
nice last week anyway and if I was still a
an idiot skier I could go up and rattle
my edges on the icy wind blown
snow above the tree line.
___________________
MY FATHER'S ECONOMICS
—David Humphreys
He said that the reason we were in Vietnam
was primarily due to the cost of tin, so essential
for electrical connections, in circuitry or anything
really. This he said as I watched shot-down Huey
helicopters drop out of the Southern Hemisphere
sky of Time magazine’s casualty calculations. Do
not assume that anything is ever final or decided.
I will suggest however, that we are currently experiencing
a collusion of exploitations. Who, properly invested
of course, in their comfortably cushioned suites enveloped,
would not benefit immensely from tremors of shuddering
terror in a volatile dynamic marketplace?
__________________
BONNIE BORDNER
—David Humphreys
This girl was absolute top of the line,
everything about her straight out of
something that might easily have been
Social Register, but she was from Blue
Book country, Southern California, and
never made anything of it. We might
consider the differences of one coast or
the other, but Bonnie was the ultimate
of “class” itself. My best friend Peter
wasted a lot of time adoring her. I had
an odd feeling she was a bit too close to
my roots of Brooks Brothers and the
Register and what was proper in that truly
bizarre context. Bottom line for me now
though, looking back forty years: she wore
the hottest pair of Levis I ever laid eyes on.
____________________
—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: News from Rattlesnake Press
The brand-new Rattlesnake Review (#17) is now available for free at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Contributor copies and subscriptions will go into the mail this week and next. And if you aren't any of those but would like me to mail you a copy, send two bux to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.
Also New in March: Attracted to Light, a chapbook by Ann Privateer; Eclipse, a free littlesnake broadside by Jeanine Stevens; and Conversations Volume Two of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series.
Coming in April: We will mark the Snake’s fourth birthday by throwing the Fourth Annual Birthday Bash at The Book Collector on Wednesday, April 9, including a buffet at 7 PM, followed by a reading at 7:30 PM. That night, there will be three history-making releases: Ann Menebroker’s new chapbook (Small Crimes); Ted Finn re-emerges with a new SnakeRings SpiralChap of his poetry and art (Damn the Eternal War); and Katy Brown inaugurates her blank (well, not really) journal series for our HandyStuff department with her MUSINGS: Photos and Prompts For Capturing Creative Thought. Please join us to celebrate four years of [your] poetry with fangs!