Missing:


Someone kidnapped my muse
and I want her back. Last seen
walking into the remaining wisp
of morning fog wearing a dress
of sea glass, shoes made of sonnets.
Identifying marks and traits: a tattoo
of Liszt’s Concerto #1 in E Flat,
cadenzas blistering her back.
Her body smells of plumeria,
new-born piglets, and chalkboard
erasers. She eats only plums,
and pickled beets, eggs on occasion.
Snores like a Great Dane, annoying
habit of chewing her cuticles. She repairs
broken circles with an addict’s fervor.
To the kidnapper: I’ve sent out
a posse of cranky poets who’ll chop
off your fingers, pull your teeth
with only a sulphur vapor for anesthesia.
Please release her before she gets
Stockholm syndrome. You kidnapped
my muse and I want her back. If you send
your ransom note, I’ll call off the posse.
Name your price. I want her back.




Ex-marriage Lesson #7


Stoned newlyweds, we watched some B movie
with a scripted public service announcement –
total world destruction, eminent. Never called
a single relative, knew the phone lines

would be jammed. We clutched each
other, grateful for final moments. Nothing
else mattered. On the edge. Alive.
Thirteen years after divorce, you still visit

my dreams like phantom pains
of an amputated arm. You build a fire
in the dream camp and tell adventure stories
-- in a feral tone. We talk of escaping suburbs,

building an A-frame cabin with our own hands,
deep in the forest. I would’ve gone to the wilder
place with you -- what held us back?
Then, how precisely you folded the tent

and tarp. Tight edges, wrinkle and dirt-free
packing. I wake. The edge of the sheet
leaves its mark on my neck like a slash.


Jari Thymian’s poetry has appeared in Ekphrasis, The Christian Science Monitor, Margie Review, Broadsided Press, The Pedestal Magazine, Bijou Poetry Review, Alehouse, Chicken Pinata, Cherry Blossom Review, and Melusine. Poems are forthcoming in Memoir (and), The Orange Room Review and the Kent State 3-year traveling art/poetry exhibit called Peace Speaks. A chapbook, The Meaning of Barns, was published by Finishing Line Press, 2007. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her website is www.jarithymian.com