|
This week's feature is Pushcart-nominated poet, Francesca Leader, whose powerful words have been widely published. Today, please enjoy "The White Dream" (with first publish credits to Frost Meadow Review) and "Treat My Body Like an International House of Pancakes" (with first publish credits to Beatnik Cowboy). Thank you, Francesca, for sharing your work! The White Dream a child in her sleep, (the path ragged with ice) crashing in snow, chasing bird tracks and gasping up the tree-frost haze. then you are there, parting a screen of lacquer-red branches, bare-faced in a smiling cloud of hot breath, a halo of winter air; our skates skittering, jet-streaming on the minarets of bubbles in the pond eye, black under-foot sky, the earth of earthless beings; we are so light, like ghosts, all soul and no human weight; and we laugh at our mutant mitten hands flopping like paws on the bank when we tumble. at night, in cabin light, the frozen dark bruises will show in our skin, like ponds under ice. but already, I sense the thaw of waking . . . I will, with the dream’s power, the next drift to cover my eyes, to keep the white spell from lifting. Treat My Body Like an International House of Pancakes Pretend the pages of my menu are sticky and you don’t care why, don’t give one single fuck about hygiene because you know what you came for, and you’re starving. Make me feel as good as on those all-night college nights imbibing bottomless coffees and secondhand smoke that smelled like love, one plate of hashbrowns split five ways. Flip me. Bite me. Soak me in syrup, baby-- You, of all people, should know what I like.  Francesca Leader is a self-taught, Pushcart-nominated writer originally from Western Montana. Her poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction have appeared in, or are forthcoming from Wigleaf, HAD, Barren, Milk Candy Review, Fictive Dream, JMWW, Mom Egg Review, Literary Mama, Stanchion, Door Is a Jar, Nixe's Mate, and elsewhere. Learn more at inabucketthemoon.wordpress.com.
Welcome back poetry lovers! Another fellow poet worth celebrating is Charles K. Carter, whose newest collection, If the World Were a Quilt , was recently released by Kelsay Books. Please enjoy two poems from the book, "Secrets" and "Venom." Thank you, Charles, for sharing your work! Secrets About two blocks down the street from our house, headed towards the parks by the lake, I got used to arguing with him and always having to distract our yippy Shih tzu from the beautiful old golden retriever sitting on her porch. She had earned her relaxation. She had the secrets of old age. She had the secrets of life. She had the secrets of love. One day she was gone. A quiet grief overwhelmed me. I wanted to speak to her, to know her wisdom. I wanted her to take my paw and tell me my fortune: would he ever love me in the way I loved him? Venom It warms like the Florida sun soaking into my skin, swimming faster and faster to feed toxins to all the cells inside. It burns like the Minnesota cold creeping up through my veiny tributaries, climbing peaks and valleys to reach my sacred heart summit. It calms like my Iowa youth flashing before my eyes – first kisses, swing sets, Mamma’s humming in the kitchen. Don’t tell Mamma that I was trying to die again.  Charles K. Carter is a queer poet from Iowa who currently lives in Oregon. They share a home with their artist husband and their spoiled pets, and enjoy film, yoga, and live music. (Melissa Etheridge is their ultimate obsession.) Carter, who holds an MFA in writing from Lindenwood University, is the author of If the World Were a Quilt (Kelsay Books) and Read My Lips (David Robert Books), as well as several chapbooks. Charles is on Instagram @ckcpoetry .
|
SHINE - International Poetry Series
Curated by Samantha Terrell
From the international poetry community, we have a "luxury of stars," as Sylvia Plath might say, and it is my honor to provide a home for their words through SHINE Poetry Series.
NOW IN PRINT!
Stars Over the Dordogne
|
