Alician Red

 

There we were, all alike in white

little siren-sailors calling ourselves,

faux black hearts beat Alician red

guided still by the stuffies atop our shelves.

Chittering big-eared receiving stations

gathering gossip in the vegetable patch

to take back to our warrens to sort and parse out

which colors clash and which might match.

We lived on pellets but dreamed of rows

of fat tomatoes to pile in a pram.

We had the side-eyes of those good to eat

and batted our lashes at the young huntsman.

_________

for Bjorn at Dverse--"get to know kennings"

Don't forget that the Word Garden Word List stays active through Sunday1

Ode to Jimbo

 

"Kitten," he said to me,

"you are the worst kind of witless cow,"

adding, of course, the rest of the usual blandishments. 

What he meant, translated from Jimbo-ese

and run through a blender filled with

fresh fruits and nectar, was

"You are the sweetest, most appealingly goofy lovebug

that anyone could ever meet, and I am delirious with joy

to know you are mine, my little millstone." 

This is how I ended up on the beach, albeit the one

grandly known as the Salton Sea. Like Jimbo,

it is salty and ruined. Like him, it needs me.

There are locals here, and they eye me dubiously

but warm up and offer encouragements like

"Who the fuck are you? Are you stupid? Get lost."

They've made me feel right at home, they are so like my Jimbo.

I pick up a dead fish and wonder if I could save it.

Just some Evian and Aveeno could work wonders.

My Jimbo lies over the ocean; my Jimbo lies over the (Salton) Sea.

No wait, he's right here, dropping the butt of a Lucky Strike

onto the gray, contaminated sand. "Come home," he says.

He looks like a lost puppy wearing a days-old shirt

and is eating something he probably shouldn't. 

I say, "Miss me, dontcha?" Jimbo squints. "Shut up."

(That's Jimbo-ese for "Yes, baby.")  

Aw shucks and shiny silver dollars, 

if that's not love, I don't know what is!

___________

for Word Garden Word List--Last Seen LeavingLast Seen Leaving

Good News / Bad News

The good news: everything has been saved,
locked away for you:

real love, sunny skies, and on and on.

The bad news: you need a key to open the door.
You have to make the key yourself.
The lock is in a foreign language.
No interpreter.

The good news is, the world turns and turns.
Tides come in, then go out.
The equator is a ring on which hangs the key.
Already made, already spoken

by your own hand;
from your own mouth.
_____
  
For Susie's challenge at Real Toads.

You Have One New Message

If you really loved me,
you'd know what I want.
I wouldn't have to
spell it out,
dumb it down,
get out the hand puppets.

If you really loved me,
you'd lay the world at my feet--
not show up a day late,
a dollar short,
dressed in sports shit.

What made your worm-ass think
you deserve
this butterfly?
__________

art by Maria Sibylla Merian

60 words for the obviously fantastic Mama Zen.

Come On

Come on.
that's what my friends say.
They say,
girl,
go conquer Egypt, or something.
Get a ring on every finger.
Did you know,
those are not Nile crocodiles
doing the old snap and roll
in the shallows?
Those are my old loves.
Talk to them.
See what I'm about, on my good days.

I still have them, sometimes
(good days, I mean)
but the nights have gone molasses black for me,
though not half as sweet.
If you could love me,
then why won't you love me
like you did
the first time?
Come on, baby,
I need so little, and you possess so much--
every toss of your hair moves the planets.

Come on.
that's what my friends say.
They say,
do that strut, like you used to do.
But that was before I went so girl-weak and needy.
That was before I knew how you could please me.
Before the fall.
Before I met you.
_______


 

Girl Detective

Girl Detective is a good old fashioned gumshoe.
She's worth it at twice the price.
Photographs have been sent to your wife.

It's the double cross, bait and switch, better luck next life.
It's the old switcheroo.
Why the long face, whatsamatta you?

She's got the juice, she's got the sass.
And if she wants, she punk yo ass.
Hands off the trench coat, jack, if you know what's healthy.

Girl Detective does evidence creatively.
And after her labors have come to pass,
See you in the funny papers. Pray for you at Mass.

Girl detective got the goods on your bad acts.
Let her tell you how things are.
You can start by washing her car.

Clothes may make the man, but
Dark glasses make the girl.
She does it for the love, never for the money.
Remember,
When she's good she's very good,
But when she's bad, 

well,

that's confidential, honey!
______

for Flipside's word list #11