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FOR THE CHILDREN OF OKLAHOMA & THE WTC Suffer the first vision that set fire to the stars. ~Dylan Thomas Practicing for the fire the star spirit set up the sky, watered no clouds in the drought. She said it was partly triage, to dip the big dipper into the store of lost things she'd found and set out for the infants buried alive in the stars. She told everyone to watch – they would find stars where before there had only been milk.
The stars were pure, the vision
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STIFFKEY (A Found Poem) Stiffkey, the rector, prowled London tea shops persuading an astonishing number of young waitresses to slip into toilets with him, assume awkward positions, and copulate. Defrocked, the rector found employment as a tamer of lions and was eaten by one.
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AERIEL WISHES TO A LOVER To toss tulips, jonquils, gloriosa blossoms till he catches them, dangling, on his ears To wrap him in seed strips till his heat and juices make zinnias, petunias, and pansies bloom To splash ripe raspberries on his breastbone To rub velvet strawberries into his hair Then to glide over Niagara safe in a bubble blown through a dandelion ring in the foam.
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WHERE IS THE ODE to the last menstruation and the wish that, had we known this was the last red blood gush, the final fish/blood smell, if we had known the warm juices would dry, we'd have bottled them, taken them out only with perfumes, myrrh and spices. If we had known, we could have dribbled on white paper, finger painted red, watched our design drying like October leaves, framed it in gold, hung it high above the fireplace, called it, "This is the Last."
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THIS MORNING when I awoke, your image fumbled at my eye until I swept it out in one loud burst of light. I turned and tunneled under quilted bedsheets. You, from the pillow, watched. A starling came to pick at my eye and I let it. When the pupil was gone, you chased the bird till you caught my eye and brought it back. I watch you now, eating peaches, cornflakes. The clicking of your jaw tolls the ascension.
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Mary Sue Koeppel is the editor of Kalliope,
one of the most respected and widely read women’s
literary journals. Her most recent book is In The
Library of Silences, Poems of Loss, which has
received widespread popular and critical acclaim.
Published by Rhiannon Press, In The Library of
Silences: Poems of Loss is currently available
through
The Canopic Bookstore. |
