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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Ornification

Gift Store Rabbits Multiplying
—Photo by Frank Dixon Graham, Sacramento


UNEXPECTED PLEASURES
—Tom Goff, Carmichael

Complimenting you on your glasses,
how they frame or fit the shape
of your face. I should Ellington
my praise: darling, it’s your face
makes those lenses lovely.

Watching you slip into
the room beside mine.

Sitting silent behind you
also sitting silent, we about
our different works,
finding such rhythm as this
works.

Glimpsing skin by hint. Excerpts a blank
book opens on. Capris giving each taper,
calf-to-ankle, a tabor-beat
lightness, a taper-light lilt. Where

another pretty might keep her
back-of-the-ankle tattoos:
little dragons, small mandalas.
Could the look work for you?
I’ll never know, unless lip-close.

No: still little to no makeup, nor ever
the need for. What psychology
says, suppress right here
your urge to adorn, say, these facial
curves exquisite as finely milled
beauty bars, and as nude? And

so adornment just resurges,
more urgent, over here? In this
dragon’s-milk, lamb-and-maiden-fed,
scent-flowery, thought-billowing kiss?

What ornifieth a gentlewoman,
oh my lady.

____________________

AFTERNOON AND EVENING OF THE DANCE
—Patricia Hickerson, Davis

street guys
they go to a bar
they pick up women in boots
everything goes screwy
they go out on the street
sunny skies
they kick up their heels
they dance down 5th
soon it’s midnight
afternoon has gone quietly, dies
waltzing down 5th
darkness and quietude
middle of the night
they march up the stairs
arm in arm
into the room
now the real dance begins    

___________________

I LOVE A LIAR
—Patricia Hickerson

a drooling, winking liar
his eyes are on me
lying
a liar with a bald head
eagle eyes
and a small sharp beard
preferably dyed black
he’s a dyed in the wool
liar
words drip from his lips
lips moistened for the kill
drooling, winking liar
nails manicured
opened-up collar
double duty jacket
for pleasure or sex
drink in hand
elbow at bar
hey, lady, whacha doin’ tonight
romeo in khaki shorts
toes on the brass rail
voice lost in the noise          


Red Tomatoes
—Photo by Frank Dixon Graham


UNCLE BILL'S CABIN (For TH & WG) 
—Patricia Hickerson

nothing tidy here
no yelling, no barking
no dogs to distract
words spread wide
no songbirds twittering
no sheep ba-a-ing
words spill out
crawl up the walls
the real songs we sing
night and day   

__________________

YOU ASKED
—Patricia Hickerson

I told
I’ll tell again
I tell everything
I tell it to the world
I tell it to my friends
I tell it to my son
I tell it to my dog
I tell it to my priest
I tell it to the walls
I tell it to the sun
I tell it to the moon
I tell it to the earth
I tell it to the road
I tell it to the valley
I tell it to the hill
I tell it to my flowers
I tell it to my chair
I tell it to the window
I tell it everywhere
I tell it to you   

__________________

UNEXPECTED PLEASURE
—Michael Cluff, Corona

Last Friday
I discovered
missing college newspapers
I had written for
in the mid-seventies.

They weren't all that good
and now I realize why I skipped
over journalism as a lifestyle.
But seeing my first wife
in the guise I first met her
plus all the thick hair
on my nape back then
made Monday's haircut down
to the scalp
(to hide what was long gone
in some strategic spots)
all that more delightful
since her playing with my locks
got us married in the first place.

A lack of alimony
in my life since 1991
is a treat
I enjoy at the end
of every month.
 
___________________

Thanks to today's contributors! Frank Graham reminds us of two things: that the second session of Sac. Poetry Center's International Poetry Tour which he hosts with Emmanuel Sigauke will take place at North Natomas Library this coming Saturday, and that the deadline for the next issue of SPC's Tule Review, edited by Linda Collins with Kate Asche and Frank as Co-Editors, is July 1. Check the green board for details about that, and scroll down to the blue board below it for more info about Saturday. By the way, poets in our area have two choices tonight for readings; be sure to check out the blue board for those, too! 

About his poem, Tom Goff says:  For any wishing to know if "ornifieth" is a verb, it is, at least coming from the pen of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, who seems to have coined it. Hmmm...as inventive as..."Shakespeare?" The word is listed in the OED as appearing no earlier than 1590, with uses by William Segar and Thomas Bedingfield, both men known personally to de Vere. But de Vere had used it c. 1573, in his preface to a book some scholars think Hamlet must've been reading (it fueled his soliloquy, and those touches about the "unknown country"). 

___________________ 

Today's LittleNip: 

ASLEEP
—Patricia Hickerson
thru an earthquake
lightning strike
fall back on the bed
hit the pillow
breathe in
breathe out
a dream of poetry 

__________________

—Medusa


Cat's Table
—Photo by Frank Dixon Graham