Julie's Elixir, Read it Till you Burst! Julie's Elixir, the Best for What is Worst!

[Julie]

Thank you all for the heartening and magnificent fluff! So good to see so many old friends and new friends alike.

[5th column]

Another example of killing your darlings. Nicely done.

[Janet]

A great poem and killer last lines- you set the stage so well. Loved the metaphor, cadence and timing.

[Julie]

Killing Frost

No, not a bullet into Robert.
Just the sudden snapping cold
when the leaves were newly dreaming
about popping their britches.

Can you hear it without thinking
of Wildfire, when a songwriter's
sleight of hand turned a tender
lettuce's death into a pony's?

[5th column]

I really enjoyed this second poem. The first line gets the reader's attention and the close is a surprise. Nicely done.

[Emilio]

Julie, I absolutely love this creative and fresh take on flowers in Drop. So accustomed to the beautiful side of flowers, we"re rarely exposed to its dark. The wonderful imagery brings it about nicely. In this last, sequence and consequence is engaging and thought provoking. I enjoyed reading these!

Best,

[prokopton]

"and it clings to your fingers like a dying friend."

The last line caught me by surprise. It was all cliche spring-stuff and then, wham!
right in the kisser like being hit across the face with a flounder.

heh.

Good one.

G.

[Julie]

Run

It all loops around to this to this
brighter ballpark green and the beauty

of it the beauty of red and blue
and uniform white and the players tall

and loping and sunflowers that spray
from their thresher mouths. The beauty

of small wizened men in jerseys looking
wise and the red faced father with his beer

hand pointing his daughter to the play
to the ball to the squirrel bounding

across the field to the vendors trawling
in the aisles and buying her Cokes

and ice cream and badly folded boxes
of popcorn-shaped salt but mostly

sitting there just silent and hopeful
he for a winning season and she
to stay there forever with him always glad.

[Tony Hoffman]

Ah, spring. A good start.

[Bela]

Gorgeous openers, Julie. Great to be reading you again.

[Dunc]

Yo Julie!

Always good to see you here again.

And your flower poem is wry as ever and with your underlying humour. Onion skin indeed. Great finish.

Regards / Dunc

[Julie]

Vagabond

I picture him tipping the stick back,
finding that spot where the bag
hangs easy across his furry shoulder
(do cats have shoulders?) though I have
not yet decided (my dream flits back
and forth) if he'll hold it with a front paw
or his teeth (I'm always inclined to keep
his teeth busy) or arrange some clever
contraption that will leave him free
to walk and bite (that's why I keep the teeth
busy) and yowl (and the mouth) that he
is misunderstood that the food in his dish
does not involve turkey despite his love
of turkey and his dislike of fish (ask how much
fish is in there) and his love of gravy
and his dislike of the kibble and the dry
and the hobo bag is filled with cans
of food (though he lacks thumbs) I should
dream it more like a whole fish (but he
doesn't like fish) or a ham the size
of a much bigger cat than he is
(until he eats the ham).

[5th column]

Vagabond is lovely - I think you have to go down the Puss in Boots route and let him walk upright. I'd personally love to see him flicking a cheroot over his shoulder on the way

[Julie]

Fool Me Once

The neighbor's garage door sounded like thunder.
I still expected roofs to leak and cursed--
the sky, the door, the brain--all interspersed


Fool Me Twice

The cats still have a fountain in the kitchen
despite my tendency to think the sound
means something's in the plumbing--not quite drowned.

[Julie]

5th column, Janet, Emilio, Geoff, Tony, Bela, Dunc, thank you for all of your encouragement.

I feel a bit bewildered this April, so I need all the help I can get!