July 2005 Archives
"A Good Day with Dad in the 'Special Neighborhood for the Memory-Impaired'" by Judy Kronenfeld appears in the 9.4 (Summer 2005) issue of The 2River View. Listen to the poem by clicking the title.
A Good Day with Dad in the "Special Neighborhood for the Memory-Impaired"
We play catch
on the patio.
Mourning doves lift off
from the shrubbery with a clatter
like rattles shaken
over a happy baby's crib
and the baby's
chortling answer.
I am three again.
Or is he three?
I have to aim care-
fully. Allez-oop!
WHOOPS.
I cavort for two.
Bird of Paradise
spreads stiff wings
in the locked garden.
"5:00 A. M." by Judy Kronenfeld appears in the 9.4 (Summer 2005) issue of The 2River View. Listen to the poem by clicking the title.
mired in a dream
of dissolution: teeth
dangling, bones
crazed--then up
but not, bodiless
as a ghost of mist....
your gathering
arm, sleep-warm
around my waist
and the soul
condenses back
to body
and the body
knits
"Spontaneous Combustion" by Anna Evans appears in the 9.4 (Summer 2005) issue of The 2River View. Listen to the poem by clicking the title.
The words sound like fireworks.
You imagine rockets, catherine wheels,
flames licking the sky.
You think of a colossus,
blackened and crumbling to ash.
The truth is: the tiniest fleck
of sawdust, or fiber of cotton
sometimes implodes
from the knock-kneed pressure
of its hydrogen bonds.
There's nothing to see.
"Quick, Slow, Slow" by Anna Evans appears in the 9.4 (Summer 2005) issue of The 2River View. Listen to the poem by clicking the title.
Hemingway's trigger finger
performed its final action
for the man of action--
bang: definitely dead.
But Sylvia knelt with her head
in the oven, waiting for the blue mist
to claim her blood
while she played this film
over and over:
switch off the gas,
open the windows,
go and hug your children.
Virginia filled her pockets with stones
and waded in from the river bank,
forcing herself ever deeper
when even the water whispered
Go home--your husband loves you.
Understand this: men know
they are fickle, while women
keep faith with death, hold fast
until those last, even breaths.
"Nine Botantist in Stalingrad" by Mercedes Lawry appeared in the 9.3 (Spring 2005) issue of The 2River View. Listen to the poem by clicking the title.
Nine Botanists Starve in Stalingrad
The wolf came out of the ice.
The men diminished slowly, was it
one at a time? Imagination was the nature
of their hunger, and then their death.
The seeds stayed safe, heritage and hope.
Eventually, wheat, corn, potatoes.
Science is neither benign nor malignant.
It goes on without nourishment,
becoming fields of marvelous green.
"Looking at Van Gogh" by Mercedes Lawry appeared in the 9.3 (Spring 2005) issue of The 2River View. Listen to the poem by clicking the title.
Sunflowers drive against the blue.
Wind forces the stalks back
into flames. All about power
on this day of heat and moving air.
All ripped apart and put back with paint.
How could he know the impossible,
see it again through brush raking canvas?
He took no care for consequence,
spent whole days howling
at the recognition of what flew out
of his hands and screamed.
Oh, sweet madness, how I'd love to have you in
for just an interview. To lean
into your eyes in search of clues.
Now the explanation takes on
a life of its own as I return
safely, to bask
in the wilderness of suns.
