POETRY
by Robyn Art

WINTER IN THE MAN-MADE ISLANDS

Dear Republican Victor, I am trying
to find a way to buy the recollection of snow,
the goose’s throaty exodus

over the ravaged autumn fields,
sound of the leaves’ wind-stunned departures
and the stratosphere heavy with dew,

slung with the displaced ions of wrecking balls
and the planet’s atomic commands.
there are as many names for vanish

as there are forgeries of cloud,
the frog’s adenoidal forays
in and out of the half-drained marsh.

Dear Vanquished arboreal shadow,
Dear feathers stuck with oil, I am trying
to buy a way to buy you back

***

TREATMENT

Story in which all is revealed-
the sum of lovers and supernumerary
betrayals; story in which one marries
up, marries down, marries money, an actual
pile of singles; story in which the infant’s
lactiferous yearnings are heard
through motel walls; story in which one
goes blonder, goes darker, is overheard
mouthing the words, I’d sell my soul
for electrolysis; story in which is debated
the nuance of “ketchup” versus “catsup;”
story in which ensues the pulverization
of your chapel-train dreams and in which
you get to wondering just how the shit
went down: your regrets and tax bracket desires,
the pocked and swarthy inhabitants of your dumb
burned-out hopes, story in which contraband moaning
is heard through motel walls, story in which who
woulda thunk it and in which everyone
has been warned; story in which one sallies forth,
avec lipstick, avec waxed and exfoliated crotch;
story in which one sallies forth, sans lipstick,
sans waxed and exfoliated crotch; story in which
one shows up at the appointed hour to find the lights
out, the silverware missing, and a note on the broken
screen, Get a dog, get a gun, watch yo’ back
out that swingin’ door.

---

Robyn Art was born in Boston. Her recent poems have appeared in Slope, The Hat, Conduit, Slipstream, The New Delta Review, Rhino, and canwehaveourballback.com. Her chapbook, Degrees of Being There ,was released by Boneworld Press in May 2003. A second chapbook, No Longer A Blonde, is forthcoming from Boneworld Press in 2005.

---

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