Michele Leavitt
Defective Mirror Image
I hate to say that one of you
has disappointed me. In lieu
of that, I'll say you're different.
One perfect, one discontent
as hell. To think, I bragged on both
of you, and decked you out in hosts
of toe rings, fancy shoes and polish.
You've stuck together in your smallish
way, resorting to irony.
My left foot won't embarrass me.
But this right one—she isn't right at all.
Bunion, hammer toe, odd ball.
Girlfriends
What are friends for?
For fun and more
importantly
the times that we
succeed against
the odds or sense,
or when we fail
for lack of male
appendages.
When messages
go wrong. To fill,
when we are ill,
an empty chair
and brush our hair.
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AUTHOR BIO |
Michele Leavitt, a poet and essayist, is also a high school dropout, hepatitis C survivor, adoptee, and former trial attorney. Her essays appear in venues including The Rumpus, Shondaland, Catapult, and The Sycamore Review. Recent poems can be found in Poet Lore, North American Review, Stirring, and Baltimore Review. More at www.michelejleavitt.com
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POETRY CONTRIBUTORS |
Michelle Blake
Jane Blanchard
Barbara Lydecker Crane
Lee Ann Dalton
Susan de Sola
Michele Leavitt
Lynn Levin
Marjorie Maddox
Carolyn Martin
Bernadette McBride
Susan McLean
Kamilah Aisha Moon (Featured Poet)
Sally Nacker
Patrice Nolan
Katy Rawdon
Leslie Schultz
Myrna Stone
Gail Thomas
Nell Wilson
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Megan Marlatt:Looking like large puppet heads, it was "anima", the root of "animation", that led me to the making of the big heads, (or "capgrossos" as they are called in Catalonia where I learned the craft.) Anima is the soul or what breathes life into a being and to animate an inanimate object, an artist must insert a little soul into it. However to bring attention to what is invisible, (the soul), I chose to mold its opposite in solid form: the persona, the ego, the big head, the mask. Nearly every culture across the globe has masks. They allow performers to climb into the skin of another being and witness the other's world from behind their eyes. While doing so, the mask erases all clues of the performer's age, gender, species or race. In this regard, I find them to be the most transformative and empathic of all human artifacts.
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