Anjie Kokan
Fish Lines (compound abecedarium)
Afternoons with Dad and a tin can fizz
between fish stories and sips of Coke, stay
centered in my tackle box memoirs. Mix
Dad's singing in there and you got some wow
entertainment. Only us, no TV
filtering the background, just the guru
glitter of the sun on the lake, that tint
heavenly peace for the taking. Our lines
intersected short conversations; our
joys were a Snickers bar or Suzy-Q.
Keepers were always a bonus. We'd plop
live bass in the net for dinner to go.
Many times we stopped at Yankee Tavern.
Never told Mom a thing about the ma'am
on the bar stool or jokes on the cocktail
picture napkins. On the way home, we'd kick
quietly back, WKLJ
ringing the oldies, the day done, and I,
small and whole, content to pass that time through
the bounce of a pick-up and Dad's laughing
under the spell of ordinary stuff,
vividly glad, and solid as a tree
waving the light of a wild chirping bird.
Xeroxed in my mind and a bit off sync,
yesterday's moments rise from the heart slab,
zoom me to smiles over warm cups of tea.
Car Hop (alpha-box)
Ain't much shakin' going on, my hair's a limp frizz
yanked in a pony tail. Root beer with ice-cream dab,
creamy as your dreams, floats in a mug. In a mix,
wondering where I should deliver the next fried
entrees of Corky Burgers, my cleavage, small v
under my cherry smile, calls for a bit more stuff.
Great idea! I run and grab gobs of blanket-
soft tissue. I won't be out-tipped by blonde Sarah
in rush hour ever again. See these? Now I wear
Queen V. I'm your Be-bop-a-Lula as the DJ
kicks in the new hits. I flaunt a confident hop,
order curious eyes up past my skirt. How swell
my plan works, keeps quarters jigglin' in my apron.
Note: Alpha-box poems are Kokan's original creations that feature thirteen lines with all letters of the alphabet found in the first letter of each line and the last. Each poem has its own alpha pattern. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Mezzo Cammin is proud to announce that The Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline Project, which will eventually be the largest database of women poets in the world, was launched on Saturday, March 27, 2010, at 6:00 PM at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Tom Field)
Visit Timeline. |
|
|
|
|
 |
| Gail Biederman: I use sewing as a form of drawing, as one way to alter a surface. Thread is my line, a physical presence that hovers in space in my installations. With both a cast shadow and an edge that catches the light, thread creates multiple realities, a jumbled mix of hard and soft, the solid and the ephemeral. | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
