This is an extreme rewrite of something I posted a while ago:

In Stitches

the hum click slower and faster
of the sewing machine, the needle a big fish
 feeding from the bottom
of my mother’s hand, the tiny light
like a glass eye hovering over her 
    fingers

my mother unfolds the transparent
human-colored paper, slides off my shirt
so she can wrap the paper around me
 mark space with a pencil

I hold my breath 
the hair on my arms      
 rising
 her hands on me

the woman who tucks herself smaller
than the hidden kittens 
 invisible when I call

my skin as sensitive as the gap
 of a missing tooth
  if I move my eyes or sigh
she’ll remember I‘m here

And if I were going to have a chapbook about children and meat this might be the cover:

Reading tomorrow.

Hey!! I'm doing Poetry vs. Comedy again, replacing one of the other poets who dropped out. Not sure who.

Last time I got the lowest score! Let's see if I can get even lower this time! I'm going to try harder to be funny this time, but I always ending up just horrifying people.

You have to come just to hear Adira! She's the funniest woman in the world that sings! She puts Silverman to shame!

Here's the deets: (I'm replacing one of the poets, just imagine my name there)

PVC: The POETRY Vs. COMEDY VARIETY SHOW

February 28th, 8PM
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
F Train to Second Ave.
$6
www.myspace.com/pvcshow

PVC: The Poetry vs. Comedy Variety Show is neither an ordinary poetry slam nor a regular stand-up comedy show. PVC is a battle of wits and rhymes where the stanzas and the stand-up collide. The show brings together the high-paced excitement of a poetry slam with the astute hilarity of smart, observational comedy.


EMCEE: Carolyn Castiglia (Caroline's)

STARRING:

Comedians
Margaret Dodge as Lubka Bubkova (Dodge City)
Giulia Rozzi (Mortified)
Jodi Wasserman (Comedy Central's Premium Blend)

Poets
La Bruja (HBO/Russell Simmon's Def Poetry Jam)
Salena Godden (BBC Radio)
Robin Cloud as Angela Davison (Under The Pink Carpet)

MUSICAL GUEST: Adira Amram (The PIT)

Judges
Mindy Raf
Shawn Hollenbach
Ann Carr

I've decided to make a new chapbook about children and their food. Because I've realized I have so many poems about just that. And here's one.

Children Having Trouble With Meat

        they're not sure?
              the fork    makes an
  interesting clang when they bang it
            on the rim of the plate

          in the center
               there's something?

it makes no noise when they hit
    it with their fork
         not even a grunt

          although when they hold their ear
                              very close
to its burning smell

                 there is a wet
                          hiss

Okay, just one more today and I'm through.

Architect of Appetite

the witch doesn’t dine very often 
 she’s a connoisseur

she enjoys how cinnamon sprinkled on the roof
   carries in the air     when the children
  drift in to her yard    they’re dragged
by their noses

 her mother warned her 
  she would starve
  with  her delicate tongue

the rest of the family made do with rats and grubs
  the occasional farmer’s wife

the witch smiles as she remembers
pats her belly    bakes a new
gingerbread brick & stuffs it in 
the corner where her bedroom sags

  she’s never been unhappy 
with the 
 sweetness 
  the way the flesh sloughs
off the bone boiled in garlic
  water and lemon

though some summer days 
 she swears 
  the heat in her little sugared house 
   will bake her

(untitled)

Waterfall Wedding Wheelchair
Video Camera Violence Voice Over
Typewriter Unconscious Underwater
Talking Animal Tape Recorder
Suicide Attempt Sunglasses
Small Town Snow Soldier
Reverse Footage Ring
Restroom Resurrection
Prologue Prostitute
Prodigal Son Product Placement
Party Person On Fire
Oral Sex Orphan
Neo Noir Nervous Breakdown
Masturbation Scene Medication
Love Triangle Machine
Key Kidnaps Kids
Interracial Romance Island Jail
Hallucination Hat
Ghostly Figure Gift
Famous Fantasy Sequence Farm
Falsely Accused Family
End Of The World Epic
Dogs Dream Like Drowning
Dancing Death Of Friend
Cannibalism Car Accident
Answering Machine Apartment
Animal Attack Angel

Key Word: Dream Sequence

Favorite Films

Go for it.

So I’ve been “tagged” with the favorite film meme. To make it a little more interesting, I’ve created something more obscure.

1. The one told backwards in a strip club. Also, parrot eggs.
2. The one where the elevator opens and there’s a lot of blood.
3. The one where the skeleton sings and falls down a hole in a tree.
4. The one where he almost finds out he’s an android. Also, origami.
5. The one where the girl gets an abortion. She holds a grenade in her apron.
6. The one where the ground knocks and produces fire. Lots of masks and blindfolds.
7. The one where there’s many copies of her in large tubes of fluid. Also, toxic spit.
8. The one told entirely in his head while he’s being tortured. Also, lots of paperwork.
9. The one where he finds the ear and the blond girl cries a lot.
10. The one where the blond girl dies and he gets revenge with heroin.

Oh, and 11 because I'm perverse and I really wanted to add one.
11. The one about the red hood and the wolf-changing and the bobbing severed head in the bucket of milk.

Can you guess?

The Holy Birds of Astoria

they wait for Claire outside the pale funeral 
home on 30th Ave 
across from the dry cleaners 
with the duct-taped window pane 

the starlings surround her 
when she steps off the curb

shimmer and hiss and woot
voices like gears constantly winding
like the rising sound at the end of a question

birds so dark in the depths 
of the street's one pine
the shadows enclose them like envelopes

purple bits of glint for eyes and the sound
of fluttering  (they shove and adjust)
the exclamation of a yellow beak

whistle whistle crackle

they tug at her pink purse    alight
on her shoulders  take her earlobe
in their beaks like a piece of nectarine

they scratch her cheeks     she cries 
her mother cuts her fingernails again, 
smacks her on the thigh where no one
can see the bruise

on her way to her day program
the starlings stain Claire's dress
     with white streaks
like she's half-erased

Also, Jenn Tynes wrote the most perfect review of The Transparent Dinner. She really understood the book! Which is not easy. As you might know.

Jenn is so nice she's an angel. With gold wings. Tipped with Diamonds. She's the angel QUEEN. With a unicorn horn, even. On a puffy pink cloud.

Oh, I've had a sad and lonely v day. But something almost made up for it:

There's a review of my chapbook, The Animal Husband, up at Galatea Resurrects. It's quite flattering, and something that I definitely needed on Valentine's Day. You can find it here.

It's kind of narrative. Although I like the story of it, it doesn't quite feel "special enough" right now. Any comments are appreciated. I might need to cut it up.

The Snow Queen

the rope, she said, is to catch you when you fall through

at the pond behind the Berenger’s
Claire’s mother knotted Claire’s double bladed skates

(for babies her mother said) after Claire
failed five times, blue mittens between her teeth

her mother fastened a clothesline
around Claire’s waist
and shoved
large hand between the shoulder blades

Claire rocked forward
until she hit her knees (the ice so, so hard)
or Claire swooped
until her breath punched out of her jaws

her mother sat smoking
on her plaid blanket
among the iced weeds

staring over Claire’s red knit cap
at the starlings shaking the snow from the pines

Claire watched her as she flew past, wondered
if the line were strong enough

You can tell I'm a skilled medical professional.

Treatment of Hypothermia

the last time we tried this your mother hated me with her eggs

half-cooked egg whites are usually placed on the palms

think of Thousand Oaks or Mexico City: their palm trees judge our footwear

footwear is often a leading cause

please fill these socks with boiled eggs and hang them around your neck

necking couples get distracted in the snow: their thumbs become numb, fall off

thumbing through this book you find many answers about heat sources

please sign your name on our information sheet when your mother is done with our survey

at this point, you may call the victim’s name and tap her gently on the shoulder

I'm just going to say it.

I DISTRUST THE NEW BLOGGER. It made me convert, somehow, when I wasn't paying attention. I have the feeling that I'm going to be in debt later on; owe it a child or a soul or two. That's what happens when you don't pay attention.

Yes, the poem.

UNIT 17. COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER PLANETS

    using the energy of exploding teeth,

        the moon is somewhat like gasoline
    engines, sewing machines, steam engines and
            electric motors.

You should be careful not to swim in the strings of the piano.

            Pull down muscles,
                this machine.

You should avoid letting anyone
                move down like the earth,
    (a thick waxy substance is secreted
            in the canals)

Wouldn’t you like to really
        find out about our weather?

This one, too, was ensconced in a collage, but I can't get the picture to scan right.