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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: MULLEN, HARRYETTE Matches Found: 241 Mullen, Harryette Poet's Biography 241 poems available by this author AFFIRMATION First Line: Sometimes it's like this %everything says yes Last Line: Before it takes shape in your mind AFTER THE RAIN Last Line: Knives grew on the hillsides %thick as blades of grass ALABAMA MEMORIES First Line: Houses with peeling skins of gray paint Last Line: Alabama memories returning %like an old familiar dream ALL SHE WROTE Poem Text Subject(s): Letters; Writing & Writers ALL SHE WROTE First Line: Forgive me, I'm no good at this. I can't write back Last Line: Author plugging her best-selling book AMNESIA First Line: So much I want to forget Last Line: It only reminds me %how foolish I am today ANATOMY: 1. THE OVARIES First Line: Easter baskets, %matching egg cups of the flesh Last Line: Bloom to flowers %blossoming blood ANATOMY: 2. THE TUBES First Line: Perfect roads, %or snakes; ribbons Last Line: Jam up the tunnel %hope it won't explode ANATOMY: 3. THE WOMB First Line: The warmest garment, %it grows like skin Last Line: Turn out the lights, %enjoy the dark ANATOMY: 4. THE BREASTS First Line: They are food Last Line: That likes to be eaten ANATOMY: 5. THE VAGINA First Line: Tear this envelope open Last Line: Into your hands, %till you know it in your veins ANGER First Line: Tongue-tied Last Line: Nothing comes out %but spit ANSWERS TO HER OWN NAME First Line: The names you once gave me Last Line: To someone setting fire to my name ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE First Line: The pope of cosmology addresses a convention Last Line: Like the arcane analysis of a black box full of insinuations of error ANY LIT Poem Text First Line: You are a ukulele beyond my microphone Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary ANY LIT First Line: You are a ukulele beyond my microphone Last Line: You are a uselessness beyond my myopia APPLE GREEN First Line: My heart is apple green %and my kisses are only Last Line: Open me with your mouth ASK ADEN First Line: Are aardvarks anxious? Last Line: Newts are never nervous, are they? ASTRONAUT OF INNERSPACE Last Line: Blazing the orbit path to twilight body AURA First Line: Heat surrounds your body %like an odor Last Line: Touching you with all my skin BETE NOIRE First Line: Life aint all beer and skittles Last Line: Over the dark mouth of the [or, his] bete noire BETWEEN First Line: My ass acts bad Last Line: You your toes today BILINGUAL INSTRUCTIONS First Line: Californians say no Last Line: Yard clippings only BLACK DREAMS First Line: As light opens my eyes Last Line: The dream janitor %erased it all BLACK NIKES Poem Text First Line: We need quarters like king tut needed a boat. A slave could row him to heaven from his crypt in Subject(s): Egypt; Environment; Shoes; Homecoming; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Boots; Sneakers; Shoemakers BLACK NIKES First Line: We need quarters like king tut needed a boat Last Line: Earth. We're leaving all this dirt BLACK WOMAN NEVER FAINTS First Line: A black woman never faints %except maybe in church Last Line: And blow back her breath %with a funeral fan BLAH-BLAH First Line: Ack-ack, aye-aye Last Line: Zizi, zsazsa, zouzou, zuzu BLEEDING HEARTS First Line: Crenshaw is a juicy melon. Don't spit, and when you're Last Line: Live's a wren shack. Pull back. Show wreck. Black fade BLUES BABY First Line: Born with a defect Last Line: My own warm blood is poison %that will strangle me BLUES CONSULTANT First Line: I am a blues consultant Last Line: Come see me about those blues BODY OF THE MOTHER First Line: Lost shrine %in ancient dream cave Last Line: A hollow tree where honey is hidden BOLSA ALGODON First Line: A sack lined with silver Last Line: Coin purse full of change BRAND OF LOVE First Line: I want her superstitious about me Last Line: So she'll always feel my fingers %hot on her skin CALL ME BY MY NAME Last Line: To be big enough to wear it, %until at last it became my skin CARTOON MEN First Line: Glided in inked-in tuxedos Last Line: They jitterbugged out of sight CIRCLE OF ARMS First Line: When you sleep in the circle of my arms Last Line: As my body rises and falls against you %like a wave COALS TO NEWCASTLE, PANAMA HATS FROM ECUADOR First Line: Watching television in los angeles. This scene performed in Last Line: Much less introspective. Now you sound more like yourself COO/SLUR First Line: Da red %yell ow Last Line: Why it %pee ink COOLDOWN First Line: Rubbing our bodies together Last Line: The secret source %of fire COUNTRY BOY First Line: He undresses quick as shucking corn Last Line: When he shows me %a little bit of country DAISY PEARL First Line: More than a woman's name. Her traditional shape. Rapidly Last Line: Slice juice and pour control out with dusty salt. %or to taste if desired DANCE SHE DOES First Line: Judith dances on my wall Last Line: Her body, %the sunday sermon DENIGRATION First Line: Did we surprise our teachers who had niggling doubts about the Last Line: Will I turn any blacker if I renege %on this deal? DIM LADY First Line: My honeybunch's peepers are nothing like neon Last Line: Lanky model or platinum movie idol who's hyped beyond belief DISSOLVE First Line: Falling into you %I'm afraid Last Line: Like lovers %in old movies DREAM CYCLE First Line: The ice cream truck Last Line: Goes lullaby again DREAM DANCE First Line: Woman that I love Last Line: Inside the border of your skin DRINKING MOJITOS IN CUBA LIBRE First Line: My mojito in la bodeguita. My diaquiri in el floridita.' a postcard of Last Line: With a drop of african blood DUST MOTES First Line: Flying apart, %done I by relentless intimacy Last Line: That fill the space where we once stood %together DYSLEXIA First Line: Woman, opposite, %you are the mirror Last Line: And all that is left %is wrong ECTOPIA First Line: A stout bomb wrapped with a bow. With wear, you tear Last Line: You tear, but you tell us, %trust us to suture you EEG First Line: They hooked me up to their hideous machine Last Line: A manic pen, caught in the grip of a mechanical hand, %scratched spiky daydreams EL MAL OJO First Line: Your dolor de cabeza you blame on me Last Line: With what you call %my evil eye EL MALECON First Line: How many engineers trained to hold back a million Last Line: Or he's afraid we'll clone a cyclone %aqui en el malecon? ELLIPTICAL Poem Text Subject(s): Failure; Language; Relationships; Words; Vocabulary ELLIPTICAL First Line: They just can't seem to... They should try harder to Last Line: Our interactions unfortunately have been ESSENCE OF ROSES First Line: Essence of roses washed with rain Last Line: Your tongue, %a pink, wet rose EUROPEAN FOLK TALE VARIANT First Line: They way the story goes, a trespassing towheaded pre-teen Last Line: Extensive damage to their property EURYDICE First Line: Can't wait to be sprung from shadow Last Line: As darker she goes deeper EXPLORING THE DARK CONTENT First Line: This dream is not a map Last Line: On cowrie shells EYES IN THE BACK OF HER HEAD First Line: I'm your momma, and I could always tell when Last Line: Eyes that see where you're goin, %where I've been FABLE First Line: When the crow fell in love %with a scarecrow Last Line: While the blackbird whispers %notes toward a song FANCY CORTEX First Line: I'm using my plain brain to imagine her fancy cortex Last Line: Might fancy the microcosm of my prosaic mind FATHER (PART 1) First Line: My mother told me that after he left us Last Line: The black men only laughed FIRE THIS TIME First Line: Cave canem %a poet's retreat Last Line: The poets are wide awake FLOORWAX MOTHER First Line: My mother warned me I'd perish in dirt Last Line: I'll send him right back to his floorwax mother FOR MY GRANDMOTHER, LOWELL PAXTER MITCHELL First Line: I remember you, granddaddy, in shades of black and white Last Line: I keep between the pages of a black-bound bible FOR THE BEARERS First Line: Black women %be fruitful Last Line: They can't stay %to harvest FREE RADICALS First Line: She brought the radish for the horses, but not a bouquet Last Line: Green algae to rid the body of free radicals GENE FOR MUSIC First Line: He wants to know if I am happy here and have I eaten any Last Line: He says, and she feels cold, suddenly noticing the air GO ON SISTER SING YOUR SONG Poem Text Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations GOING, GOING, GONE First Line: What I've got %will rot if I didn't Last Line: He only wants me to %get it and go GREYHOUND SOUND First Line: A kicker in a gimme cap Last Line: An old wino asleep with an open mouth HE READS MY BODY LIKE A POEM Last Line: Cold ad-lib from %a book of empty pages HEIRLOOM First Line: Would it be safe to wash this quilt? Last Line: Would it be safe to wash this quilt? HERITAGE First Line: In the third grade I looked like a little dark olive oyl Last Line: I'd inherited my grandmother's big butt after all HITCHED TO A STAR First Line: Quantum mechanics fixed my karma wagon Last Line: With remedies like these %who needs friends? HUNGRY MAN BLUES First Line: The woman don't fill my belly %like she used to do Last Line: Put my shoes under another bed IN LOVE WITH DROWNING Last Line: Where she last walked, %her body would never be found INVECTIVE: YOU SHOULD KNOW First Line: Now you are in a lather over their taking the scrabble pieces and Last Line: You will have heard it all before, no, my precious one? INVOCATION First Line: Damballah, %I'm a horse for you to ride Last Line: With a lasso of pythons IT?ÇÖS RANK IT CRANKS YOU UP Poem Text Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Relationships JINGLEJANGLE First Line: Ab flab abracadabra achy breaky action jackson airy-fairy Last Line: Zero to hero zigzag zip your lip zoo doo zoot suit zulu JOY First Line: Here's a bowl of batter Last Line: In your chef's hat, honey, %and start cookin JUJU TO REMIND YOU First Line: I put my juju in your pocket Last Line: So you can always find your way %back into my dreams JUMP CITY First Line: I feel a little jumpy around you Last Line: If it crawls away JUNK MAIL First Line: Thus is just a nothing to thaw you from your warpath Last Line: Let's mambo and be frisky. Your jiffy %jock-strap JUST AS I AM I COME Last Line: And who you're playing for %what stray companion KAMASUTRA SUTRA First Line: This is a story I have heard Last Line: I believe I'll get there too' KILLS BUGS DEAD Poem Text First Line: Kills bugs dead. Redundancy is syntactical overkill. Subject(s): Extermination & Exterminators; Social Commentaries KIRSTENOGRAPHY First Line: K was burn at the bend of the ear in the mouth of remember Last Line: Adenoid and williwaw. They all loved shapely over laughter LA CHARMEUSE DE SERPENTES First Line: They are too easy to hate Last Line: She'll teach us to make snakes sing LA TERRORISTA First Line: Love is a kind of terror, %so in love she becomes terrorista Last Line: The knife between her teeth LAMP LIGHTS INTO ITS PREY First Line: Old slippery slim, %you cold snake Last Line: A jawless sucking mouth %with a rasping tongue' LAS LOCAS First Line: Oh, you crazy girls from laredo Last Line: I understood your voices LOCKSMITH First Line: Locked door, %locked thighs Last Line: I'd have a stick of dynamite %for that deadbolt pussy of yours LUNAR LUTHERAN First Line: In chapels of opals and spice, o pisces pal, your social pep Last Line: To fan a mess, I write manifestos. So said the lunar %lutheran MADONNA First Line: Her face made from a smooth sheet Last Line: And her house slippers %rainbow-striped MAGIC BLUES First Line: I burned fourteen feathers in a china bowl Last Line: It's done up and gone MANTRA FOR A CLASSLESS SOCIETY, OR MR. ROGET'S NEIGHBORHOOD First Line: Cozy comfortable homey homelike Last Line: Nervous self-conscious tense MARRY AT A HOTEL, ANNUL ?ÇÖEM Poem Text Subject(s): Language; Hotels; Words; Vocabulary; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses ME & STEENIE First Line: The way we talk %is we never finish a sentence Last Line: At the same time %after moments of silence MIRROR DANCE First Line: All the time I was dancing alone Last Line: A broken symmetry that nothing can mend MISS PERSEPHONE First Line: Persephone, you were one of those girls Last Line: When your lusty lover %takes his share MOMMA SAYINGS Poem Text First Line: Momma had words for us Subject(s): Women MOMMA SAYINGS First Line: Momma had words for us Last Line: So we'd shine like dimes Subject(s): Women MOONSTALK First Line: Out of my navel %a beanstalk grows up to the moon Last Line: Watches him coming %through the green leaves MORGAN DAVID BLUES First Line: He love that morgan david, %yes he do Last Line: Just wish the man could see it %from my point of view MOTHER OF NIGHTMARES First Line: I am the mother of nightmares Last Line: Run berserk %in the terror of night MUJER DE VOLCANES Y TERREMOTOS Last Line: I tremble with the earth, %receiving your ceaseless vibrations MUSE & DRUDGE (1) Poem Text First Line: Just as I am I come Subject(s): Beauty MUSE & DRUDGE (2) Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Why these blues come from us Subject(s): African Americans; Negroes; American Blacks MUSE & DRUDGE, SELS. MUSIC FOR HOMEMADE INSTRUMENTS First Line: I dug you artless, I dug you out. Did you re-do? You dug me Last Line: You dug art, %didn't you? Did you re-do? MY GRANDMOTHER First Line: White men %opening doors Last Line: For her %was liberation NAKED STATUES First Line: Oscars for the war of noses. With a mummy out of egypt Last Line: Them in the garden of naked statues NATURAL ANGUISH First Line: Every anguish is arbitrary but no one is neuter Last Line: That will drive us to the brink NIGHT WE SLEPT ON THE BEACH Last Line: And the sea never catches me in its rhythm NO GOOD First Line: I told you from the get-go Last Line: The woman was just no good O, 'TIS WILLIAM First Line: Is it otis? %- I'm... %- otis, so it is Last Line: I am will! It is too! O, william otis, it is! I am! OF A GIRL, IN WHITE Poem Text First Line: Of a girl, in white, between the lines, in the spaces where nothing is written Subject(s): Relationships OF TWO MINDS First Line: An eye opens, a door closes Last Line: Balance, which nullifies force %that which remains OLD MUGGER BLUES First Line: That old mugger blues stole my love Last Line: Kicked in the teeth %by that old mugger blues OMNIVORE First Line: Because I was afraid to lose you Last Line: Full of wonders %like an ancient fish ONCE EVER AFTER First Line: There was this princess who wet the bed through many Last Line: Knowing that a kiss is smaller than a %delayed hunger ONE OF THEM KIND First Line: Girl, how did you get to be so ignorant? Last Line: The way you act sometimes OUTSIDE ART First Line: A humble monumental Last Line: Of orangina bottles PAGE 1 Poem Text First Line: Sapphire's lyre styles Subject(s): Relationships PAGE 34 Poem Text Recitation First Line: If your complexion is a mess Subject(s): African Americans; Skin Color; Negroes; American Blacks PAGE 35 Poem Text First Line: The essence lady Subject(s): African Americans - Women PAGE 39 Poem Text First Line: Arrives early for the date Subject(s): Abortion; Grief; Sorrow; Sadness PAGE 5 Poem Text First Line: Sun goes on shining Subject(s): Women - Abused; Wife Beating PAGE 72 Poem Text First Line: Mister arty martyr Subject(s): Conduct Of Life PAINTING MYSELF A NEW MIRROR First Line: I'd change the colors I see %to some that aren't invented yet Last Line: And flash each other signals in the sun PENSANDO EN LA MUERTE First Line: Paltry surrealism can't account for it Last Line: Your spirit flies out to me %to strengthen all my bones PEOPLE OF ATLANTIS First Line: We are caught beneath a tight skin of water Last Line: We have begun to breathe the sea PHARMACOPEIA First Line: The dream has taken effect Last Line: Peddled shamelessly in the streets- %the one they call reality PINEAPPLE First Line: Pineapple is armored flower Last Line: & you're hoping that your tongue %can reach your elbow PLAYING THE INVISIBLE SAXOPHONE EN EL COMBO DE LA ESTRELLAS First Line: One of these days I'm gonna write a real performance poem Subject(s): Jazz; Music & Musicians; Poetry & Poets PLAYING THE INVISIBLE SAXOPHONE EN EL COMBO DE LA ESTRELLAS First Line: One of these days I'm gonna write a real performance poem Last Line: As I play the invisible saxophone en el combo de las estrellas Subject(s): Jazz; Music And Musicians; Poetry And Poets POETRY FOR DUMMIES First Line: Roses often signfy love or beauty Last Line: Rouses the most rigorous stiff PRESENT TENSE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Now that my ears are connected to a random answer machine, Subject(s): Social Commentaries PRESENT TENSE First Line: Now that my ears are connected to a random answer machine Last Line: With the curious dynamic of an action flick without a white protagonist PRETTY PIECE OF TAIL Last Line: Just for trying out a pretty piece of tail QUALITY OF LIFE First Line: Does all dust turn grave in his nightmare of cloned sheep? Last Line: Once I get that zip gun your reality czech's in the %escargot RECIPES First Line: The icewater click of windchimes tickled by a breeze Last Line: Fresh mint for the tea, %a kaleidoscope RESISTANCE IS FERTILE First Line: This system needs your moral fiber like a bowl of x brand Last Line: When you're all pooped out, we're just breaking a second wind RITUAL OF EAR PIERCING First Line: Cristina saying: %when ana was pregnant with cielo Last Line: She was strutting toward womanhood %with new-won golden earrings ROADMAP First Line: She wants a man she can just Last Line: Exactly the same as before S*PERM**K*T First Line: Pyramids are eroding monuments. Embalmed soup stocks the recyclable soul adrift Last Line: Brush off scum on some well scrubbed mission. It's slick to admit, motherwit and grit ain't grocerie S*PERM*K*T: 1 First Line: A single serving after-work lives. On eternal welcome mats omniscient doors Last Line: The radio stations of the cross. When you see it you remember what you %came for S*PERM*K*T: 2 First Line: Kills bugs dead is redundancy is syntactical overkill. A pinprick of peace at Last Line: Wipe out a species, with god on our side. Annihilate the insects. Sterilize %the filthy vermin S*PERM*K*T: 3 First Line: A daughter turned against the grain, refuses you gleanings, denies your Last Line: Can't remember? You pretend once agains she's not lost forever S*PERM*K*T: 4 First Line: Flies in buttermilk. What a fellowship. That's why white milk makes yellow Last Line: Cheese. Speed readers skim the white space of this galaxy SATURDAY AFTERNOON, WHEN CHORES ARE DONE First Line: I've cleaned house %and the kitchen smells like pine Last Line: To keep what we do %from coming apart at the ends SHE LANDED ON THE MOON First Line: She'd studied the science of motion Last Line: Her music parting the slow silence SHE SWAM ON FROM SEA TO SHINE First Line: Hide and seek, where the tree decided to sleep was where she Last Line: Mermaids murmur. Plato opens utopia to poets on opiates SHEDDING SKIN Poem Text First Line: Pulling out of the old scarred skin Subject(s): Loss SHEDDING SKIN First Line: Pulling out of the old scarred skin Last Line: I'm going to be tender again Subject(s): Loss SHUDDERING First Line: On such a cold night %my bones feel loose inside my skin Last Line: Scaring others %out of their skins SIGNIFICATION First Line: You come to me %talking about love Last Line: And I won't miss it %one bit SIREN #1 First Line: The song cuts through me like a keen wind Last Line: I'd happily drown in the whirlpool of her song SIREN #3 First Line: Cock-teasing whore, %I could sail toward you forever Last Line: Only the shining fishtail, %cold and blue as the sea SIREN'S SONG First Line: I must sing into sunlight Last Line: From climbing to the top of this rock? SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY Poem Text First Line: I beg to dicker with my silver-tongued companion Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY First Line: I beg to dicker with my silver-tongued companion Last Line: Like the secret acrostic of a lover's name SOME LIGHT TO HOLD IN MY HANDS First Line: At night the trees catch stars in their branches Last Line: The light that I catch in my hands %will fly out through my fingers SONG OF A DANCER First Line: There's an herb I rub on my eyelids Last Line: Until my darkness gleams in the night SOUVENIR FROM ANYWHERE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: People of color untie-dyed Subject(s): African Americans; Race Awareness; Negroes; American Blacks SOUVENIR FROM ANYWHERE First Line: People of color untie-dyed. Got nothing to lose Last Line: Children will be sold as slaves SPIRITS IN MY HEAD Last Line: Tangled as a briar patch, %wild as african orchids STIRRINGS First Line: I want to go to bed Last Line: And put its eye out %with my tongue! STRANGERS First Line: How did we meet %and begin our merger? Last Line: May we never be strangers again STRIPTEASE First Line: I was your fantasy come to flesh Last Line: Stripped down %naked %bone SUMMER SALT First Line: It's no wonder fish fly Last Line: Beneath salty sky %of celestial starfish SUZUKI METHOD First Line: El nino brought a typhoon of tom-toms from tokyo Last Line: Loaded with soy from ohio SWEET BROWN MOLASSES Last Line: Call my name and hold me tight SWIFT TOMMY First Line: I grew up with a lot of punctuation myself, so I can understand Last Line: You where you've got me, I'd give myself a blowjob' TAKING THE LORD'S NAME IN VAIN First Line: They had you thinking that every time you said Last Line: To save your soul %delivered a lightning slap TANKA DIARY (1) Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Hiking up topanga canyon Subject(s): Hiking; Lizards TANKA DIARY (2) Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: My visitor from nebraska Subject(s): Shells; Conchology TANKA DIARY (3) Poem Text First Line: Don't need picket fences, brick wall, Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening; Home TANKA DIARY (4) Poem Text Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening TANKA DIARY (5) Poem Text First Line: Instead of scanning newspaper headlines, Subject(s): Plants; Planting; Planters TANKA DIARY (6) Poem Text First Line: Flowers of evergreen tree called bottlebrush Subject(s): Flowers TANKA DIARY (7) Poem Text First Line: As guests are arriving I see in a corner Subject(s): Spiders TANKA DIARY (8) Poem Text Subject(s): Hiking; Snakes; Serpents; Vipers TANKA DIARY (9) Poem Text First Line: Awakened too early on saturday morning Subject(s): Morning; Silence TED JOANS AT THE CAFE BIZARRE First Line: Cairo man %surly realist Last Line: Sporadically all over %forever diaspora TENT REVIVAL First Line: In this fly-by-day church Last Line: Wearing dresses of stiff white cloth THROUGH THE MOON First Line: Standing alone in the desert Last Line: Sealed inside a snow globe TO A WOMAN First Line: You're like the skinny folk Last Line: A taste of something %you've never had TRANSIENTS First Line: Vines through the roof of the tool shed. Water leaked in Last Line: A drunkard in the plaza called out, 'sister, may I kiss %you?' TREE First Line: Yes %I'm grounded Last Line: Singing loud in my tangled hair TREE TALL WOMAN Last Line: Walking with butterflies %fluttering at her fingertips TRIMMINGS, SELS First Line: A little tight, something spiked, tries on a scandal. One of a pair vamps it up Last Line: Gaudy gawks at baubles fondle tawdry laces up in a garish gear, a form of being content TRIMMINGS: 1 First Line: Becoming for a song. A belt becomes such a small waist. Snak Last Line: Embrace. Sucks her in. She buckles. Smiles, tighter. Quick to %spot a bulge below the belt TRIMMINGS: 10 First Line: In feathers, in bananas, in her own skin, ingtelligent body Last Line: To a gaze. Stripped down model, posing for a savage art, brought %color to a primitive age TRIMMINGS: 11 First Line: Duds, garbled garb. Misfits, women in breaches. Early bloome Last Line: None inhabits. Unholy magdalene with her veil of tears TRIMMINGS: 12 First Line: Chaste, apprehended, collared and cuffed. Kept under wraps, Last Line: Child, baby, laced and unlaced. A ruffle, a frill. A pale piece of %something, almost made of air TRIMMINGS: 13 First Line: Rapt babes in peekaboo webs. Preying widows, spiders in blac Last Line: Weeds. Smoldering glance in a drop-dead dress. Witches burning %at high stakes. Blackened virgins, s TRIMMINGS: 14 First Line: Shades, cool dark lasses. Ghost of a smile Last Line: Shades, cool dark lasses. Ghost of a smile TRIMMINGS: 15 First Line: A fish caught, pretty fish wiggles for a while. A caught fis Last Line: Sea. With brand new feet walks unsteady on land, each step an %ache TRIMMINGS: 16 First Line: What a little moonlight inside her pink silvery is softness Last Line: A colored other. Pearl had a mother who cried TRIMMINGS: 17 First Line: Thinking thought to be a body wearing language as clothing o Last Line: A soul, she is veiled in silence. A veiled, unavailable body makes an %available space TRIMMINGS: 2 First Line: Lips, clasped together. Old leather fastened with a little s Last Line: Alligator purse. Green thief, off relief, got her pocketbook by %hook or crook TRIMMINGS: 3 First Line: Two shapely legs stretched, then run. Sheer magic, a box div Last Line: One saw a woman cut in half, waving incredible feet TRIMMINGS: 4 First Line: When a dress is red, is there a happy ending. It there murmu Last Line: Inside out. Sight for sore eyes. The better to see you. Out for a %stroll, sriting wolf-tickets TRIMMINGS: 4 First Line: Of what material softness folds to hold her, under when over Last Line: A pocket for your hand. My dress falls over my head. A shadow %overtakes me TRIMMINGS: 5 First Line: What's holding her up. Straps, laces, garters, corsets, belt Last Line: With blues-saddened slashers. Laced up, frilled to the bone.Semi- %automatic ruffle on a semi-formal TRIMMINGS: 6 First Line: Her feathers, her pages. She ripples in breezes. Rim and fri Last Line: Every rufle made smooth. Gathering her fluttered pages, her %feathers, her wings TRIMMINGS: 7 First Line: Bones knit. Skins, pink, flush, tight. White margin, ample Last Line: Fleshings. Out of character, full blush. Flushed out of hiding, pink %in the flesh TRIMMINGS: 8 First Line: Gold chains, choker, ring her neck. Draw a bead, string it Last Line: Black. What rankles, she fakes it. Less than naked, strung out, %stranded TRIMMINGS: 9 First Line: Akimbo bimbos, all a jangle. Tricked out trinkets, aloud gal Last Line: Gimcracks, a stack. Bang and whimper. Two to tangle. It's a %jungle UNABLE TO GRASP THE MEANING First Line: Something my hand %couldn't reach. Clutching Last Line: My arms around your black jacket, %trying to remember UNACKNOWLEDGED LEGISLATOR First Line: After singing the final page, %the poet passes out Last Line: Are all singed in blood, %the poet's meter expires UNSPOKEN First Line: I'm holding on to you, but you're gone already Last Line: On your way down the far side of that mountain UP FROM SLOBBERY Poem Text Subject(s): African Americans; Language; Social Commentaries; Negroes; American Blacks; Words; Vocabulary VARIATION OF THEME PARK First Line: My mickey mouse ears are nothing like sonar Last Line: As reckless as any souvenir bought with free coupons Variant Title(s): Variation On A Theme Par VICTIMLESS CRIME First Line: Jumping into my get-away car Last Line: As long as they don't catch me, %I'm free WAITING FOR THE NEXT STAR TO FALL First Line: Half the night we spend Last Line: Each night, %waiting for the next star to fall WAY OPPOSITE Poem Text First Line: The opposite of walk? Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary WAY OPPOSITE First Line: The opposite of walk? Last Line: I don't walk, %I run WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE First Line: We are not responsible for your lost or stolen relatives Last Line: Or we can be held responsible for what happens to you WHAT'S DECENT THESE DAYS First Line: He's a decent man Last Line: And doesn't beat me %or my children WHY YOU AND I First Line: Who knows why you and I fell off the roster? Last Line: Our union dissolve to strike the orderly alphabet? WILD ROSE First Line: Wild rose should be your flower Last Line: Pierced me with loneliness, %rose too wild to touch WINGS AGAINST THE BLUE First Line: Turned sideways in the sky Last Line: To fly into the dry white moon WINO THINO First Line: For no specific reason I have become one of the city's unicorns Last Line: Why, when I charge you with my rags, I won't %overturn your sporty jeep WIPE THAT SIMILE OFF YOUR APHASIA Poem Text First Line: As horses as for Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary WIPE THAT SIMILE OFF YOUR APHASIA First Line: As horses as for Last Line: As never as this WITH TWO HANDS First Line: I take you with two hands Last Line: Calm and eager with thanks WOMAN AND THE ROSES First Line: Blue sleep %and night blue sky Last Line: Her body will open %like a rose WOMAN CIRCLE First Line: Try to make a woman %who is whole Last Line: With the strength %to shake the ocean WOMAN IS DREAMING First Line: A woman who cringes at the stiffness of starched petticoats Last Line: She gives birth to a loaf of bread X-RAY VISION First Line: You don't need x-ray vision to see through me Last Line: You knew that my story was thin XENOPHOBIC NIGHTMARE IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE First Line: Whereas, in the opinion of the government of the united states Last Line: And found to be not lawfully entitled to be or remain in the united states YOU WHO WALKED THROUGH THE FIRE Last Line: With only the strength of my two hands? ZEN ACORN First Line: A frozen %indian acorn Last Line: A narco dozen %faze an african ZOMBIE HAT First Line: Greatest thing since texas toast Last Line: So long as you keep a lid on |
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