an old project, revisited

This is one of about twenty poems I did using Susan Brownmiller's book Femininity as the ground for a new narrative. They are tenatively titled "Loose the Stays", but since the format is odd, I haven't really published them. I have been trying to figure out how to make them work in print. Currently, I have been scanning them and storing them as pdf files. This is a project I am still very proud of, and want to see produced as a group.

new suitcase poems

11.

Keys lost [----] ago--
edges fray, you mend

summer of building---

how it all comes
a --- part
that parting finality

it echoed silent
cold-------

Nothing in the right place
walls patterned wildly
she----once blonde

It---all---lost---here

we pack essence,
this entering


12.

I will draw the case around
take you to meet mother---
father nodding approval

Your name resonnates blankness
a blank look forward
hand cups neck
the fragile bones

blink----stutter----sigh
ssssssssoooooo heerre weee aarre

stain of pine
foot print pressed

no songs tonight---
nothing to take along---

suitcase series, continued

This does not fit-----

background looming

"Don't tell me WHERE"

now, staring-----
blank star----
blue so vibrant

hand on hip, hand on hand
a bellow or a sigh

now a glass bridge
peeking through to the floor

arms, only arms
his face ragged, unshaven

cramming it into-----
are we home?

some new suitcase poems

7.

This time, you travel alone--
slowly the leaves drop

his hands---rough---against
the---impossible---silence

Names, faces, how to use a fork
they vanish
no words to describe
cardinals in trees,
water slapping sand

wood discolored from rain
neighbors talk through gaps
the blurring vision

wrap tight the bundle
held against shoulders, walking

8.

Seeming heavier with each step
the mud sticks to boots--
orange clay, orange coat--
his hat hangs on the rack

Yesterday whispers
whimpers against progress
standing still, your steadiness
long----long-ing---slow
trees trace jagged sky
a tree---house

She called herself-----
small voice--squealing
behind slatted doors--
creeping light across horizon

9.

You leave a stone to mark each step

songs filter

fog fills--------------you cut

this---not wanting---to live

shadows accumulate against
moments anger overwhelmed

coral lipstick, pearl earrings

names tangle------------slip

hands on wheel,
cracking boards

breath falls sideways

a slow quiver against
hard edges of solitude

distance between here and --------

Sparks

That is our body,

there are fuses--
sometimes the arcing electricity is blinding,
blows cicuit breakers

breaking under the weight
of secrets and sorrow
and singularity

Sparking, this is my body
in the shadows

This is my body that confuses
and confesses
lights up the darkness
with quick flames --- that lick the sore spots

This is my body

a confession
an omission

of blinding sadness
and power

another suitcase for my grandma

6.

WHEN -------- I want////to go
they faded, the polaroids of the beach that day

you, the [ ] housewife
who never liked to cook
the cracks--gaps--your face--un-famil-y
the way the breath
just
stopped.

dulling varnish
the lacquered box black
cabinets bare
looked back
holding on----------the pain

open rusted clasps

curl yourself inside its walls.

EOAGH is out

reading launch for EOAGH: A Journal of the Arts, Issue Three: Queering Language


Saturday, March 24th, 6pm to 8pm
ROBIN'S BOOKSTORE
http://www.robinsbookstore.com/
108 S. 13th St.
Philadelphia

hosted by Tim Peterson & CAConrad

Readers will include:
Dodie Bellamy, Kyle Conner, CAConrad, Jim Cory, Sarah Dowling, Maria Fama, Chris Gullo, hassen, Mytili Jagannathan, Anne Kaier, Candace Kaucher, Erica Kaufman, Kevin Killian, Janet Mason, Cathleen Miller, Ashraf Osman, Tim Peterson, Stephen Potter, Sina Queyras, Jason Zuzga

Dodie Bellamy will read the kari edwards editorial statment

We will also be reading the work of Alexandra Grilikhes and Almitra David

EOAGH Issue 3 - Queering Language was edited by CAConrad, kari edwards, Paul Foster Johnson, Erica Kaufman, Jack Kimball, Tim Peterson, and Stacy Szymaszek.

This online publication includes the work of over 100 contributors as well as editors' statements on this project.

The issue of EOAGH is dedicated to the memory of
kari edwards (1954-2006)
dear friend, mentor, colleague, crusader.