..................................................................................................................................................
The Poetry Of...
Marie Gail Stratford.................................
Sevenlings: The Serial
I.
She gazes doe-eyed across the table,
lifts her glass and smiles at him
over champagne. He clutches his chest.
She rides with him in the ambulance--
another lover, another heart attack.
He flat lines before reaching the hospital.
A little mourning will be required before she continues her quest.
II.
A cat blinked under
the morning sun from
her position on the veranda.
A bullet burrowed
into the man taking
breakfast on the lawn.
Only silent witnesses can be trusted.
III.
The sweet linger of amaretto
hangs in the air
over the teatray.
"I prefer my Earl Grey
with lemon," she smiles,
reaching for her handbag
beneath the cloying aroma of perfumed rat.
Reaching Past the Rags
ragtime
swung America
uptown from St. Louis
swam south with the Mississippi
toward fields
and towns
of Southern pride
breezed into Charleston
danced through streets of Carolina
then swelled
over
Alabama
to the home of Dixie
where she landed a legacy
among
trumpets
and saxophones
muted like hues of blue
in a green room after the play
of hours
parades
masqued poverty
sleeping on boulevards
singing songs for tourists' pennies
or food
waves knocked
upon this door
of homelessness, threatened
the culture of rags, the swing of
two-steps
when with
a mighty swell
ocean’s band broke past the
levee, drowned Dixie's jazz in the
alley
Tanka Trilogy: Flight of Memories
I.
modern sleek
aerodynamic crane
pauses to fish
in water gardens
of my memory
II.
next spring
sparrows will return
to nest
in the hayloft
mud-spackled memories
III.
woman again
she tidies the nest
prepares
for sleepless nights
and lullabye memories
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