..........
.............The Poetry Of
.......... Karen Corcoran Dabkowski

....... The Man From Outer Space
.......
.......
....... My uncle was a bastard,
....... born before
....... my grandma married.
....... Four more sons
....... and a redheaded daughter
....... saved by proper marriage
....... in the eyes of Christ,
....... and only Christ knew
....... who the man of standing was
....... who'd squirted out
....... the bastard known as Russ.
.......
.......
....... Grandfather
....... kept her secret
....... and raised the boy
....... as though he'd been his own,
....... but Russell knew.
....... His eyes
....... were blue.
....... His hair, blonde
....... and he caught air
....... instead of arms in every hug.
.......
....... Depression years brought drink
....... and coal in winter,
....... gathered by lump
....... after the coal truck passed them by.
....... The scuttling boys,
....... thin-dressed, all knees and shame,
....... brought bucketfulls
....... to heat the woodframed, rented walk up.
....... Grandma prayed.
.......
....... She birthed the twins.
....... Her husband
....... strayed to bottle.
....... When Russell was sixteen,
....... my Grandpa told the boy
....... that he was not a son of his
....... and stomped away, not to recall
....... when sobered up, the thing
....... that Russell feared-
....... the thing that made him
.......
....... dif
....... fer
....... ent.
....... Russell bent
....... in ways
....... that
....... afternoon.
.......
.......
....... Each year, he sent a postcard
....... to my grandmother
....... on his birthday.
....... She would cry
....... and read the childish scrawl
....... across its face:
.......
....... Who is my father?
.......
....... Grandma never told a soul,
....... but Russell, he told all the world
....... and Martians, too; he'd sit in a lawnchair
....... under summer skies
....... and watch the stars,
....... convinced that they would
....... come for him.
.......
....... At Christmas time
....... we'd get a carbon copied note;
....... a tract of how the rats
....... would overtake this world
.......
....... or Russell would show up
....... right on our doorstep,
....... fully headdressed
....... and he'd tell us he was Indian;
....... greet us with Yo Haw Gee Nay!- a phrase he said,
....... his people taught him;
....... stand there, palm up-
....... grinning like he'd had a hit of benzedrine.
.......
.......
....... Later, when he roamed the streets
....... my sister, at the hospital,
....... would process Russell's
....... rectal swabs
....... for chlamydia
....... and STD's; we heard he'd done a stint in jail
....... for corrupting minor boys- I always thought
....... he looked
....... for brothers young enough to love him.
.......
....... When grandma died,
....... Russ came to church in rumpled suit
....... and crumpled face,
....... shambling to communion rail.
....... I've never seen a face
....... so full of
.......
....... woeful
.......
....... sorrow
.......
....... as that man who claimed
....... he came
....... from a different planet.
.......
....... I don't know
....... if he came from space,
....... but I know
....... that is where he lived.
.......
.......
.......
.......
.......
.......
....... Camera Work
.......
.......
....... Mapplethorpe
....... knew the bold, hard
....... sex of the flower.
....... Coaxed it's truth
....... with lens
....... like finger pads,
....... touched each stem:
....... produced
....... dew.
.......
....... Gave us every
....... secret of the garden-
.......
....... I blush;
....... a slave to stamens
....... cocked to me,
.......
....... aware the vulvar
....... orchid
....... has a
....... longing.
.......
.......
.......
.......
.......
.......
....... The Art Of Love
.......
.......
....... In light, unkind,
....... her doughy weight
....... withstood gravity's
....... meanest truth;
....... knowing that while
....... she was self-repellant,
....... he grew hard
....... for her.
.......
....... She, absurdly wet,
....... felt both her chins
....... pulled up by cheeks
....... gone high
....... with smile.
....... Leaned over,
....... nipples first-
....... going
....... for the lick.
.......
....... She was a thing
....... that Goya-
....... painter of mis
....... shapen
....... fantasy, before this night
....... would call in all its
....... coarseness:
....... Art.
.......
....... The lover waiting on the bed
....... had used his brush,
....... ridden the saddle
....... of wide, soft hips-
....... her bucking
....... would be beautiful.
.......
....... Before he'd ever
....... touched her,
....... he'd dreamed
....... the rocking blur of her
....... on canvas
....... he'd mind-painted
....... many times.
.......
.......
.......
....... Main Page

This site sponsered by
<xmp> <body> </xmp>