"her profession is her religion"

All the torch songs she sang,
albums cut, lyrics written;
all the strange fruit hung,
love found and lost, warrants
signed and executed; all the lines
etched into her face, scars on her
body, the visible and the unseen;
all the dead end bars, nightclubs,
honky tonk memories, lives cut in
bar tops, sealed with varnish and oil
then painted over; all the nights that
had no days after, the dressing room
mirrors that had no images left in them,
unending blues for unaccompanied
voice, the whiskey and the smoke
that destroyed the tone and how she
wrapped herself in a habit that wouldn't
let go.

Alan Catlin has published dozens of chapbooks of full length books of prose and poetry. The most recent being "Near Death in the Afternoon on Becker Street" from March Street Press. His most prized honor is the two most neglected books of the year designations by Marvin Malone legendary editor of the Wormwood Review.

TPQ3