August Poems

Two new poems for August. First, The Soul of Minnie Mouse, and I have to apologize for the small font size - I don't have many choices, and it was important to me to keep those line breaks. Steve Goldstein once told me this poem reminded him of the country song Streets of Baltimore, and I have to say I agree. Though I wasn't thinking of Streets of Baltimore when I wrote it, I sure do love the song, I listen to it a lot, and it could well have been a subliminal influence.

The second poem, Possessive Cortege, is something I wrote in March of 2006, just a day or two after my friend (and friend or acquaintance of others who might be reading this) Linda tried to kill herself and her two children. Unfortunately, her three year old Olive died; the boy, Connor, survived, and has no lingering physical effects (I hesitate to contemplate the emotional/mental); Linda is serving her 21 years (give or take) in Chowchilla. Anyway, the first three stanzas I got right away, but I couldn't nail that last one for the life of me, and I set it aside for a couple of years before going back to it. When I returned to it that second time I STILL couldn't nail it, so set it aside again. Finally, I picked it up a few months ago and the last stanza came to me almost immediately. Perhaps enough time had passed.

(I dedicate it to Linda, and to Lynn Riser, who is Bid Daddy.)