Laurie's Junk Drawer

[Arlene]

til i got to this page, where the two-line horror story opening immediately became my total fave, i was in love with rings...other great gems in your junk drawer -- the wood hyacinths, communing with words, fitting 4.1 earthquakes into a visit to Arkansas. very cool thread.

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

Two Line Horror Story

A doll should never be discarded
like that – white lace dress, rucked
up, faint blush on porcelain face,
single blond curl over her shoulder,
eyes wide, mouth an O
of surprise or as if ready
to receive, one arm raised
waving goodbye, faint smear
across her thighs. She lies
on top of refuse as the garbage
truck rounds the corner
just like she's the opening
to a two-bit horror story.

Nice. What can cause the greatest horror is when we sense the violation of beautiful or innocent things.

You capture that well here.

BrianIs AtYou

[shadygrove]

Every single Oklahoma poem is my favorite. Also Rings, Failure (where *is* the bottom of that barrel, anyway?), and Birds. Such delicious angry, sharp-tasting stuff in here. OK Poets Against the Frack? I'd send money to that non-profit!

[Sorella]

Dipping in on way out: Rings is fantastic! Direct and wry and packed with bling and truth.

Sorella back later (and you too can cheat with your catch up, this is NaPo)

[PClem]

Kristy, Arlene, Brian, Shady, and Sorella - thanks for your visits while I've been MIA. Actually, on vacation. I suspect this next batch will be incoherent, but that's what happens when one writes six poems in two hours!

Devon Energy Buses Their Supporters In

wearing God and going off
script.One of our activists comments
via text: the rhetoric is filled
with Freedom, the American
Dream, Civic Duty and Oklahoma
Pride. I'm trying to keep track
of what I represent here. I text
back: terrorists, obviously. Frankly,
I got lost somewhere between
Afghanistan's oil and on which side
of the horse you're supposed to shoot
your rifle from.
My husband says that guy has fallen
off his saddle. And I'm lost
on the four lane highway
the petroleum engineer
is metaphorically building
in front of my house to demonstrate
that sometimes things are
temporarily inconvenient. I wonder
about God's opinion when someone says
that fault lines are like a reluctant woman -
a little lubrication from forceful
injection is all they need
to slide more smoothly.
Or does that fit better
under Civic Duty?

On Vacation

The mind factory
shuts down
and all thought
bubbles deflated.


At the Hot Springs, Arkansas

Wrapped, shaken
not stirred, parboiled
below, steamed
and packed, then chilled
and served on a bed
of fresh washed greens


Christina Joins the Family

You broke the code,
my aunt congratulates
the new girl in the family,
a northerner. This upon
her exclamation
regarding her husband,
bless his heart, after bemoaning
the keys, cell phone and glasses
he loses in the course of an hour.
She tells us in her family you learn
early you can say anything
about anyone if you follow it
with one of two phrases,
which her grandmother
demonstrated, as in
Christina, rinse those dishes
thoroughly or you'll give us all
the shits. God love ya.


Bless His Heart

You know how it goes,
you're out of town, on a walk
and run into this woman
with her dog and start talking.
Turns out she's moved there
from your home state. You maybe
know the man she divorced and one thing
leads to another and pretty soon she's showing
you houses. Maybe you get a job
then you and your husband
discuss selling the business and home.
Or you do. He talks about
cleaning the garage and location
of the nearest Starbucks.


Spring Sense

Nothing matches
the aroma of fresh
cow shit paired
with the sight
of hundreds
of yellow-headed
blackbirds picking
through it.

[PClem]

Comparison

I wanted to write about a river
and an orange, describe the likeness.
But there is none, except the ripple
of warmth and skin. Underneath
nothing's the same, other
than a scent of time moving,
of seed, of division
and division, again. Decisions.
And it all ends, of course,
at the mouth, only
it doesn't.

[PClem]

Untitled II

We'll leave, move
on. Someone will buy
and bulldoze the place, build
something else. There was
this black cherry, the sand
plum, the sumac. There
was the salvia, blazing star
coneflowers. They will forget
we were here, that once
there were birds.

[PClem]

Existence

A man and woman stand at a gate
at dusk, in front
of a farmer's empty field.
He looks at his bird app
on his smart phone. She is watching
the shadows in the field but
looks away, at him, for a moment.
When she looks back,
there is a bobcat, watching her,
alert, haunches half raised,
ear tufts erect. Tawny against
last year's tawny switch grass.
The woman turns to the man
to alert him to the cat. The cat slips,
colorless and soundless, into the encroaching
dark, such that when the couple turns
there is nothing to see but uniform
field. Question: If the cat made no sound,
if no camera, no witness confirms
it was there, did the cat exist?

[PClem]

Ending


The stream bed holds
no water.
My pen runs out
of words.
A lizard basks
on a boulder, exposed
in the empty river.

[prokopton]

Oooh, the irony!
Brilliant, Laurie.
I wish I'd written that.

"They called it a training mistake.
We never talk about this."

so enjoyable.

Geoff

[larryrap]

Hi
Love Ending
Existence is intriguing. Is there an answer? Guess not. Though I think he was there.
Comparison and Untitled II are lovely - mysterious and a bit sad.
Learning from Failure unfolds slowly, and then bang:

Only I knew those roots
lapped round and round the bottom
searching for a way out. Ten years
and, finally, the barrel gives in.

Took a hatchet to wrestle
that tree, subversively discreet
on top, roots blown feloniously
rampant underneath. We never found
the bottom of that barrel.

Very powerful.
The political stuff is prickly and well stated although...but that's another story altogether.
Creed - good poem but I'm afraid it says a lot about me. Maybe I should do something about it.

It was excellent to watch you produce poems full of sass with that hidden animal that is silently watching and waiting to pounce.

[Sorella]

Existence: Finally time for a random read and your penultimate NaPo 2015 poem is a keeper. Straight into the scene, economical, strong particulars, wistful, philosophical, yay! Still on Loon Beer?Have another -- it's Sunday.

[PClem]

Geoff - glad you enjoyed my anti-cat.
Larry and Sorella - I think the two of you ended my month with the best compliments I've had all NaPo. You are both darlings and I'm afraid I didn't pull my weight in fluff this year. But we all got through it, somehow.