A Publication of:
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2008 Poetry
Wedding Dress
by Jerimiah Rice
Rogue demons haunt the dress you wore
On a wedding night
Painfully clear in your memory
The day “I do” became the ultimate pitch
And lips with a kiss, transparent
Slipped clean through
All the jagged smiles like ripped canvas now
Hushed, blotted out by a soft spring rain
That dress, staring through button eyes,
Beady and wretched
Trying with infinite might to force a tear,
But tears wash away on days like this
And sad memories are nothing more than a
Tattered cloth with faded colors
Forgotten by time and
replaced
Calvary vs. St. John’s
By Tammie Gradner
With faces flushed as raspberries
they stand before the mirror
and fiddle with their hair.
One adjusts her headband so
just enough fluffs free in front
and on the sides, then they lope
like young giraffes back
onto the court, plunge
back into screams and coached
reminders to “watch the key”,
“keep your hands up”, “hustle”,
“take your time” — so
many
rules, as in math and music,
to master then release.
In the bleachers the dads shake
their heads, shout replays
and alternate stratagems.
Then, like knights caught
without armor, they laugh.
The mirror’s reflection forgotten,
the girls continue to scramble,
to grapple and wrestle like
a tangle of hungry sea pups —
then press like the ocean heedless
of the continent’s turf.
Ode to an Avocado
By Joan Bowers
your black leathery jacket
seduced me
for too long
I feasted on your fulsomeness
night after night tasting of your supple fruit
bite after bite of you slipping easily
past my soft and waiting uvula
I was young then and not one soul warned me
until at last a histamine barrier shot up between us
bringing pain but so much more
revulsion at the sight of you
now alas I’m older, wiser and when you
appear next to my dinner plate
I pass you to a friend
who will relish your buttery seduction
and your lovely omega threes
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