Michelle Cameron

CHARMING

He knew how to look at the girls

they’d catch him, staring,
      the fat ones,
      the pimply ones,
      the ones no one ever looked at

he’d watch them as though they had
shown him       their rose heart
                       their shimmering core

as though he were transfixed

as though they held –
     in the curve of a cheek
     the blush of a fingertip
     the bend of a hip –
some secret
only he could see

as though it were all he could do
not to approach
slide his arms,
press his lips
     in their hair
     against their fluttering lids

the girls would catch him looking
      cheeks flushing, breath caught,

      their eyes bright
     with permission
     willing him
to make it true.

Date of Birth:	June 19, 1958
Location:	Chatham, New Jersey
Email:	mcameron@gti.net
Website:	http://www.noretreat.org/mec/
Publications:	Samsara Quarterly, Eclectica, Lips, The Paterson Literary Review, The Physik Garden, The Dakota House Journal, AtomicPetals, The Paumanok Review, Riding the Meridian, Stirring V3:E7, V3:E8, V4:E8, V4:E9
Awards:	Editor's Choice Award, Allen Ginsberg Contest; flashquake First Place poetry selection

- October 2002 - Conjugating Anatomies After the Flood Instruction Hey You Kids, Get That Dirty Bomb Off My Lawn! Oven-sun Bus Stop breasts Bread and Tulips A Son Born To A Family of Women variation on pollock's cathedral Leonardo’s Notebooks - Poetry by Current & Former Editors - Charming Jenna Sept. 10th the things we do for Kings must end sometime Song Leftovers I'm learning to love haiku Valet Parking at the Salvation Army Shark in Sheep’s Clothing - Stirring's Best From Year Three - Killing Cattle for Disease, Greeley, 1998 Dear Anna Body Parts for Art Hogs Loosed En Route to Slaughter Trying to Raise the Dead Groundhog Day