Monthly Archives: May 2014

Raul Sanchez… Poets Totem Pole

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Poets Totem Pole

If I could carve a Poet’s Totem Pole
I’d put Walt Whitman on the base
above him, Blake with wings—

one wing with Keats,
the other with Byron
above them a big usquebaugh

bottle with Dylan Thomas face
in the middle
above, an eagle with the face

of Pablo Neruda
his hands will be holding
paper on one a pen on the other

above Neruda
will be Martin Espada
holding a sword

and a microphone—
above them
Jack Mc Carthy

with both arms up
in the air
and a stern look

into your eyes
my eyes, his eyes
as if performing

at a slam
pausing without
telling us anything

 

Raúl Sánchez is a Seattle Bio-Tech technician, eschatologist, colletic, prosody enthusiast, hamartiologist, translator, DJ, and cook who conducts workshops on The Day of the Dead. He was featured in the program for the 2011 Burning Word Poetry Festival in Leavenworth WA. His most recent work is the translation of John Burgess’ Punk Poems in his book Graffito. He has been a board member of the Washington Poets Association and is a moderator for the Poets Responding to SB 1070 Facebook page.

Copyright © 2014 by Raul Sanchez

 
 

 
 

 
 

Sarah Gawricki… How to Forget Everything Day 63

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How to Forget Everything Day 63

strange little thing.
met a boy who says
the oddest little things
things like
let’s go back to my place & watch something scary
well I’m already doing that so I follow him
watch him putter around a bit
remove my tank top
untwirl the hair from my bun
men love it when the bangs hit the foreskin
cutest little boy
who does the neatest little thing
we never kiss or hold hands
but he just
powerful man
sticks it in
rips it out
I just purr his name
sexy little trick
again & again
with some savagery
while the scary movie plays
exhausted little thing
pulls it out again
& places it so perfectly inside
hot little thing
we move together
we sit in silence
spent
& it was the most miraculous little thing
I looked while he pulled it out
& what do you know
there was he & I on the tip of the
nice little thing
that moved me from my
bizarre little thing
& then
such a fine little exorcism

such a good little thing

out came you.

 

Sarah Gawricki is an artist from Boulder and the poetry editor of Fat City Review. She has been published in Rogue Zine, Fat City Review, The Bitchin Kitsch, ArtBomb NYC, Illicit Mag, Milkmade Magazine, The Winter Tangerine Review, and The Altar Collective.

Sarah Gawricki was an Issue 4 contributor and she will be the subject of Issue 5’s cover art.

Copyright © 2014 by Sarah Gawricki

 
 

 
 

 
 

John McKernan… Meeting Samuel Beckett At The Mortuary

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Meeting Samuel Beckett At The Mortuary

“Glad to see you McKernan. Is this your funeral?”

“No Sir I died several years ago Just dropped by to give you this autographed copy of Keats’s Odes.”

“If I stand here too long listening to you my shadow will cheat these tiny wildflowers of the sunlight streaming from the stars.”

“I have never thought of you as a bloody sundial”

“It goes better with all the darkness one encounters everywhere now. I wonder where it all came from.”

“Great Literature is just one vast apology for not committing suicide”

“You can say that again”

“Great Literature is just one vast apology for not committing suicide”

 

John McKernan is a retired comma herder. He specialized in depleted semicolons and the repair and recovery of derelict exclamation points. He lives in West Virginia where he edits ABZ Press. His most recent book is Resurrection of the Dust.

Copyright © 2014 by John McKernan

 
 

 
 

 
 

August Daybreak… by Jim Boggs

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August Daybreak

 

Light comes slowly

on a foggy morning.

Trees and bushes

look villainous

cloaked in darkness.

Under a heavy weight

the limbs sag

with somber colors black

and gray.

Streetlight angels

with halos dim

fail to save us.

Even birds are quiet.

The chimes says

you should be here.

Where is the light?

 

Jim Boggs is a master of the monologue even when he thinks it is a dialogue. Years behind the microphone as a DJ created a lot of one way communication, and his poetry seeks to avoid that fault. Talking about yourself is boring, and in Harlan County Kentucky where he was raised, it would be considered bragging. Life rule: never talk about money or yourself, but it’s okay to talk about your grandchildren.

Copyright © 2014 by Jim Boggs