Thursday Poem Share

What shall we share today, dear friends? I think I’d be remiss if  didn’t link to Referential Magazine where I published the first featured poem and two poems as well as a story that refer off of key words in that poem. Best way to read all in the issue is to go to the contents tab. We are also now reopen for submissions so check out the guidelines tab to see if you have anything you might want to send.

Pre-orders are clipping along at Folded Word for Paper House from what I hear. I also hear the first 26 will be signed by moi. No promises but it seems highly likely!  If you order before the end of the week I bet you’ll make it into that number. I’m gonna have a busy April with book signings and readings but still a little disappointed I couldn’t get a few more although I don’t know why I am pushing so hard for stores. By the time the stores take their cut I make virtually nothing for the book or my time, like not even minimum wage. I love book stores but I think I’d rather read at Open Mike’s and colleges and such instead. Or to book groups, if you guys know of any

I think I’ll share another poem from Paper House this week since we are getting into the home stretch on the pre-orders. This poem has never been published anywhere else although it was in my thesis under a different title:

While Mom Watched Bewitched

Here’s Little Red Riding Hood with her orange braids. She’s wearing
a blue checked dress and a bright red cape.

I hop her across the arm of the couch, having her sing
Over the river and through the woods.

When I put her on her head and lift her skirt
—there’s the wolf. He’s wearing Grandma’s black calico dress and bonnet.

The white laced bonnet is on the back of his head,
hiding Grandma’s pink dotted cheeks.

While I flip the bonnet from Grandma to wolf, wolf to Grandma,
I ask them what kind of pie they’d make for Red

and I. The Wolf growls, “Mince meat!” Grandma
pleads for apple á la mode. I

clump their skirts together, making a Siamese doll
with a little girl on one end and a

matronly wolf creature on the other. They
can’t see each other, but they know the other is there.

Now, as far as new poems? I’m in a bit of a pickle. I don’t have anything in a new draft! So, as a twist, I am posting a piece that is a bit odd. I sent it out as a fiction piece and it was declined by the first place I sent it but with comments. If you guys want to give it a look, have at it and feel free to comment. Also feel free to mention if it is in fact a prose poem and not a short fiction piece at all.

[now to start editing the fiction piece. thanks everyone!]

As always feel free to share your poems, links to poems or poems by other people in comments. Love to hear from you guys!