I've always hated titles

Yesterday was the poetry open mic at Jester's in Westfield. Not very many people showed up. The feature was Dane Kuttler who won this year's Florence Poetry Society Jan Slam (I came in fourth but I'm not bitter). :*) You can find Dane's work at http://Sophia.Smith.edu/~dkuttler

Here are some more poems I wrote Sunday (I was definitely inspired).


Blue Jean Blues

my hips don't know
when the music starts
that I am carrying
twenty -- okay thirty
extra pounds
my hips don't understand
that shaking
makes things jiggle
even though trapped
within denim that fits
just a little too well
in certain places
my hips covet
my tank-topped
breasts gyrating freely
to the rhythms pouring
into my darkened room
my hips wish
to be wrapped in silk scarves
or cotton sarongs
swaying to songs
played in the sun
to audiences of admirers
my hips can feel
restrictions placed upon them
in tidy packages with button-flies
my hips thrash about
to try and loose the bindings
they know they don't deserve

ltv




Non-Custodial Parent

my father visits me
in the sound of bagpipes
or the well-placed
rhyme of a poem
he has found
a new home
amongst legends
and myths and
memories I can't seem
to remember anymore
my father speaks to me
through British actors
on the BBC on the weekend
when I have time to watch
my father reminds me
that Shakespeare and Benny Hill
speak the same language
and warns me
not to confuse them
my father walks beside me
not in a hokey sand-footed way
but inevitably, invisibly
genetically in vitro
my father spends
his overdrawn time
touching parts of my mind
I think he doesn't know about
and can't possibly understand
my father knows best
how to turn away from life
so far away that you circle
back and are forced to live it


ltv



I Could Eat You Up!

a rare delicacy
is the fur-tufted belly
of a Willow cat
pure white soft luxury
trusting me not to bite
too much off
when I upend her
paws in the air
she squirms
ineffectively
though I release her
just the same
expecting her to run
she looks up at me
to do it again

ltv