13 January 2010

Featured Poet: Julia Drauden

Girl from prison city



locks her
doors don't go
Eastside
after dark
deadbolts
click in slide
out asks
Daddy for
mace honey
that's illegal
keychain
pepperspray
even West
turns rocks
over like words
hide-a-key
forget you
saw one eye
over her
shudder wants
a gun but
it's so unfem
Rink's sells
pink pistols
now license
alarm set
locks her
doors even in
drive East
side mural
chipped smirks
at television
renting out
old prison
mocked $40
Halloween

admission
distrusts eyes
both sides
even blue
dawn looks
barbed






X0XO, Helen Adam



I l0ve my l ve with a capital X

at the top of an hour: beginning

equals ending and alphabetic

scrambling

too many letters, not enough words

hailstones from a keystroke storm

unzip these steady

lips

L0ve is full of h les:

the difference between

O and 0 just a matter of width

the letter starved or squeezed

an Opening becomes a hole

a bracelet a c0llar

a m uth to feed




© Copryright 2010 Julia Drauden