The Many Shoes of Marty Smith
I remember her,
when we were very little,
walking so fast,
my sister and I
struggling
to keep up,
in those high heels,
clicking on the sidewalk,
not waiting for traffic lights,
leaving us far behind,
trying to catch up.
She could dance
in high heels,
even The Charleston.
look there instead
look here, they say,
but no; i want to look there,
my focus firmly fixed upon things
not so crowd-gazed.
look there with me —
glistening, intricate mosaics
painstakingly crafted
in the arches of the museum stairwell,
unnoticed in the upward or downward rush
to view the expected.
Bender
More and more I understand wanting to go on a bender
Get away from it all
Away from all the stuff that needs to be dealt with
All the petty, mundane, routine, inconvenient,
never-ending, time-consuming minutia of daily life
I Wrote a Letter
I was married and happy and not looking. But I went out on assignment to help him cultivate his fields, and something wild coursed through me. Something not cultivated, at all. I ended up writing him a letter:
I want to fuck your farm.
I want to curl my toes in the brown clay,
mash the wet soil under my arches,
squeeze the juice out of the squirming underground
and watch it bubble up out of the mud,
and over my heel,
and out from under the balls of my feet: musky.
insistent. warm like arterial blood.
Monkeys Typing
spanking my monkey
monkeys typing
the natives are restless
and they've got a lot to say
Thought to Call
thought today
man knows
noun verb
room mess
too many problems
need to be together
Down Deep
Go down deep, to where it doesn't make sense, that place that no one else can see or understand, and you can't explain or tell them about it while you're there.
Drowning in Sorrow but Doggy-paddling My Way Back to You
Apt metaphor
underwater
drowning in despair
movement difficult
slow motion from the get-go
tangled feet
depressed brain
muffled moans of pain
pawing at the tide
Hung Up on a Guy; Mad at My Friends; Drinking in a Loud, Crowded Bar
big deal crazy
live or die
sick movement time
foot in front of foot
things miss things remember
Fall & Spring Semesters
My inbox was often empty.
No new messages.
I checked too frequently, never giving it a chance to fill up, never giving my family and friends a chance to think about me.
I Want to Be the Core Holding in Your Hedge Fund of Pussy
You date like you're running a hedge fund, always keeping some women on the side just in case your current main squeeze doesn't work out, is busy or out of town, or pisses you off…
Detritus Exasperated Love
Fairy Tales Gone Awry
Disembodied photographs, disentangled lies
enumerating my descent, diagramming my surprise.
I am not your mascot; you are not my stereotype
I am not your mascot
not your stereotype
not your souvenir
scapegoat
figurehead
spokesperson
representative
tissue sample
DNA test
identity
other
Trail of Tears
Visiting family.
My eight-year-old nephew
and I both studying
the Choctaw.
the pursuit of happiness
thoughts of suicide make me happy
nice to know there's a way out
even if I don't take that exit route just yet
glad to know it's there
I Dreamed Goth Shaun Cassidy Saved Me From All the Sexists and Rapists
I dreamed goth Shaun Cassidy saved me from all the sexists and rapists.
But it was only a dream…only a dream…
Two Poems: She Said; He Said
She said, “Why are you wasting your time?”
As if all there was to it
was making a good deal.
Closing the deal.
Completing the con.
Finding New Ways to Create | Body Passages Series: Poetry and Dance Collaborations
From conversations with the collaborators and curators, especially Jeanette (Jae) Green, Sara Maslanka, and Natasha Mijares, I was able to gain more insights into the interconnectedness of poetry and dance and the collaborative, creative process.
I’m a Fool for You, Baby
We love as much, as well
as we are able, imperfect,
broken, yet doing
the best that we can,
which isn’t very good
at all.
…that until organizations realize that treating adults like wayward children destroys morale, creativity, and basic human joy, the micromanager will continue to loom—hovering, nitpicking, doubting, draining, controlling—like the world’s least charismatic supervillain.