Issue 22: Linda Black

There were bolts

on the floor   splinters

struck in spite   & then

I began    bordered    to  

inattention    doused

in jelly   sweet  &  clear

wrapped  in a  dish cloth   ikle  trickle  monkey              

albumen   ring of worms   bites

to the ear   pickled

egg         bit

of a tear

And then I began

on the floor    from the floor     

through  the hatch  

preserve   &  persevere   bits 

of hair   fuzzy  

veneer    finger  wax

pea    plea  

piddle-de-dee

Missing the route

Seconded

to another family   gate           

secured    latch . . . clatch

bloodletting    improper play    ping . . . dismay

collude / allude    right

old racket    ring

fenced  unsightly   frisked   slightly

sick    drabs / pacts / defecation 

infestation   –  something    

beginning with … m /s / ped 

cul-de-sac   an extra tray 

of victuals    virals   vitals ( overfed ) 

for commiseration    gratification / subjugation

denial   worm-holes   drabs / tracts / pacts    defects    

genitalia   (in a practical way)  

diffidence   delay   a ray   (x-ray  -rating)             

of escape   confrontation   dis-

combobulation

sniff  the daisies  often

overblown  

Referencing the house

                Constant 

declarations   of intent    posthumous

gatherings   seeking

tension    a foot-stool

to reach  the latch   trap

door   bereft of sentry   

regularities  charities   the birth

of a cinder    salt   malt

cellular   activity  

nipples   undergarments 

     smatter  of  fat            stock

supply / supplies     a lick    splat  clip  spit  chap

something   needs

moving    proving   chewing   screwing

Linda Black is a poet, visual artist (print-maker, collagist, painter) and dyslexia specialist. She received the 2004-5 Poetry School Scholarship and won the 2006 New Writing Ventures Award for Poetry. The beating of wings (Hearing Eye, 2006) was the PBS Pamphlet Choice for Spring 2007, when she also received an Arts Council Writer's Award. Her fourth collection Slant was published by Shearsman in 2016).

Prose poem collections are Inventory and Root (Shearsman 2008 and 2011). The Son of a Shoemaker (Hearing Eye, 2012) consisting of collaged prose poems based on the early life of Hans Christian Andersen, plus the author’s pen and ink illustrations, was the subject of a Poetry Society exhibition in 2013. She teaches for the Poetry School and is co-editor of Long Poem Magazine.

Copyright © 2019 by Linda Black, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of Copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.

Home  |  Issue 22