Sarcodes sanguinea (Snow Heart)
—Pubic Domain Photos
—Poetry by Jeanine Stevens, Sacramento, CA
FIRST LOVE
From kissing you, I learn chemistry,
a mix of cocktail sauce and lemon.
We eat jumbo shrimp, walk the pier,
never tire of Slaughter on 10th Avenue.
A summer of Pacific sun, baby oil,
salt spray and the bright green sea.
I didn’t know the “Winter Formal”
would be our last time,
and Blue Tango our last dance.
I didn’t know I would find
the same salt and sweet sweat with another.
We only thought about hunting
grunion in a stark black night, the only
light—a cigarette red across the bay.
(prev. pub. in Poetic Matrix, 2010)
From kissing you, I learn chemistry,
a mix of cocktail sauce and lemon.
We eat jumbo shrimp, walk the pier,
never tire of Slaughter on 10th Avenue.
A summer of Pacific sun, baby oil,
salt spray and the bright green sea.
I didn’t know the “Winter Formal”
would be our last time,
and Blue Tango our last dance.
I didn’t know I would find
the same salt and sweet sweat with another.
We only thought about hunting
grunion in a stark black night, the only
light—a cigarette red across the bay.
(prev. pub. in Poetic Matrix, 2010)
SNOW HEART
Wet, fleshy
sarcodes sanguinea, raw red neon, oblong
protrusion’s bulging seeds.
Short appearance in early spring in shade, in snow,
behind the shed. Some years, I’m too busy to notice
by summer, just brown stalk, stubble and husk.
Do I notice the simpler things?—
he folds laundry, picks up wine,
breaks up sod for my winter garden.
Next March, I will look again
for this breathing heart lit from within:
volcanic, tropical, pushing patches
of crystal ice,
a refresher course in love.
April, Lake Tahoe
(prev. pub. in Lucky Jefferson, 2019)
__________________
—Medusa, with many thanks to Jeanine Stevens for a taste of love and flowers today!
Today (2/21) at 3pm, Lincoln Poets will hold a Zoom Open Mic at us02web.zoom.us/j/6582994597 (Meeting ID: 658 299 4597; Passcode: U2zbk1/.)
Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.
Would you like to be a SnakePal?
All you have to do is send poetry and/or
photos and artwork to
kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world, including
that which was previously-published.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.
Would you like to be a SnakePal?
All you have to do is send poetry and/or
photos and artwork to
kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world, including
that which was previously-published.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
