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 5^th

soon it’s midnight

afternoon has gone quietly, dies

waltzing down 5^th

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