Shoshauna Shy


William Carlos Williams


Through the flower garden
to the library I climb
in my ice-fishing parka
for the poetry shelves
and a softcover book
that when opened smells
of sandalwood spice
from the cloistered cave
of a perfumed arm
with Lunch Emma Friday
penned inside page one

because this last reader
clamped the book against her
so she wouldn't lose
I have eaten the plums
when she bumped into Emma
out by the hydrangeas

home

The Drano Test

As she crouched and pissed
into the bottle, she imagined
a blue-eyed freckled Chrissandra
leading her through winter

in pink ice-skates. She poured
the warm liquid into a jar of powder,
stood back and watched as it smoked

and frothed. If it turned the color
of burnt honey, she'd be graced
by the company of a girl.
If it cleared like the morning sky

in May, she'd be nursing another
Johnny. With sweaty palms
on her egg-hard belly, she envisioned

a plume of chocolate and caramel,
hot steamed espresso with mocha
hues, cinnamon sugar melted on toast.
She clung to the cocoa, the suede

and the chestnut - then watched
as her future congealed
to blue.


home

Reservations


My mother is
the kind of woman who
should have lunch dates with
her daughter
Get to print it in caps
in a calendar box
Take a week to look forward
to it


so of course we'll meet
wanting it to be
an affable touch-and-volley
then find we've lumps
to pull apart
like a child's skate lace
knotted
We'll stretch awkwardly
knees to the floor
for that contact lens
in the bathtub
Knock on one door
and then the next
the walls and floor
contracting


and by the time
the mint pie is gone
we'll be sorry for
each other
and that's all we'll know
as we head alone home
the ocean even wider


Yet my mother is
the kind of woman who
should have lunch dates with
a daughter
And since I'm the only
daughter she has
guess I'm the one to ask her

home

Shoshauna Shy's poems have recently appeared in Poetry Northwest, Poetry Daily, Poet's Canvas and Samsara Quarterly. She is the author of Souped-Up on the Must-Drive Syndrome, a chapbook released by Pudding House Publications, and has a new one forthcoming from Moon Journal Press this fall.


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Svea Barrett-Tarleton | Shelley Berc | Melissa Eleftherion
Marie Eyre | Annette Marie Hyder | Shoshauna Shy
Mary Jane Tenerelli | Kim Welliver | Lisa Zaran