M Christine Delea's Blog, page 45

Daughter Mined With Mercury by Shagufta Mulla

Daughter Mined With Mercury

by Shagufta Mulla

published in Blood Orange Review, 2021 (Contest Winner)

You painted me in shadowy stripes of your choosing, iron bars

that stung my fingers and tongue

to break up my beams of gold.

I remember playing

with loose beads of mercury. sleepwalking, falling out of bed.

talking in my sleep.

I got up in the dark and couldn’t find

the door. I traced back to my bed

and hid under the sheets. Did I break the thermometer? I don’t remem...

It's Hard to Say: Poetry Prompt

Some words are difficult to pronounce, some to spell, some to guess on Wordle, some to teach, some to use correctly, and some to stop saying once we get them in our heads. This last one can also apply to writing: you may find yourself repeating a certain word (or phrase) in your writing for a period of time. You may not even notice it until you get some distance from your work and then head back to revise and edit.

I was on an "untenable" kick for most of the spring. I don't know if I read it o...

September Tomatoes by Karina Borowicz

September Tomatoes

by Karina Borowicz

published in Ecotone, Issue 15

The whiskey stink of rot has settled

in the garden, and a burst of fruit flies rises

when I touch the dying tomato plants.

Still, the claws of tiny yellow blossoms

flail in the air as I pull the vines up by the roots

and toss them in the compost.

It feels cruel. Something in me isn’t ready

to let go of summer so easily. To destroy

what I’ve carefully cultivated all these months.

Those pale flowers might still have time to...

My Sex Life by Diane Seuss

My Sex Life

by Diane Seuss

published in Rattle, #16, Winter 2001: Tribute to Boomer Girls

Having a threesome with Jack

Daniels and Billie Holiday.

Garden sex with the dumb serpent.

Sex at the Wailing Wall, the Berlin Wall,

the Great Wall, the Wall of Names. Sex

with Sonny Corleone against the wall during

the wedding. Having horse sex with Mr. Ed

reruns. Olive oil sex with the Big Cook.

Clothesline sex with the chickens hanging there;

with the bodies without heads running through

the pumpkin ...

Kitchen Aid: Poetry Prompt

This week's writing prompt takes its cue from today's poem by Jeremy Downes. (So go read that poem if you haven't already!)

Write a poem (or short story or memoir piece or essay) that takes place in a kitchen. Be sure to mention at least some of the various gadgets, appliances, furniture, and tools found there. Try to avoid food references--instead, focus on all of the non-food details, including descriptions that use the 5 senses (you don't need to lick the sink!).

Extra Brownie Points for ma...

Kia Writes the Microwaves by Jeremy Downes

Kia Writes the Microwaves

by Jeremy Downes

Kia writes the microwaves

sizzling yesterday’s browned grief;

Kia reads the manuals, finds

the pounds per square inch pressure

shrugged in the can-opener’s blade.

Kia writes the spray and whuush

of dishwashers striking up at dawn;

Kia watches as the maple knife block does its work;

as the salad spinner spins;

as the blender threshes, combs, combines.

Kia writes refrigerated lyrics, the buzzing light’s

fluorescent prose, and Kia wants and

Kia w...

Same Wording: English Spelling vs. Chinese Syntax by Yuan Changming

Same Wording: English Spelling vs. Chinese Syntax

by Yuan Changming

published in The HitchLit Review, Vol 3, Issue 2, Autumn 2020

钱是没有问题

Money is having no problem

问题是没有钱

Problem is having no money

有钱是没问题

Having money is no problem

没有钱是问题

Having no money is problem

问题是钱没有

Problem is having no money

钱没有是问题

Having no money is problem

Passion Play: Poetry Prompt

Dean Young's poem, also posted here on my blog, is an incredible poem about love/sex/romance/desire/yearning . . . in other words, passion. Yet none of these words are in his poem.

Look at the words that are in his poem; sure, a few of them are words you might find in a typical love poem (eyes, song, burning, touch) but most of them are not words we associate with love/love poems.

And that is part of what makes his poem so marvelous. The poem also builds up in both speed and tension as it go...

Delphiniums in a Window Box by Dean Young

Delphiniums in a Window Box by Dean Young (1955-2022)

Every sunrise, sometimes strangers’ eyes.Not necessarily swans, even crows,even the evening fusillade of bats.That place where the creek goes underground,how many weeks before I see you again?Stacks of books, every page, character’srage and poet’s strange contraptionof syntax and song, every songeven when there isn’t one.Every thistle, splinter, butterflyover the drainage ditches. Every stray.Did you see the meteor shower?Every ...

What I Wanted by Margaret Chula

published in Cordella Magazine, Issue 7

What I Wanted

by Margaret Chula

All my life, I wanted to ride bareback on a tiger through

the jungles of Borneo, to race by warthogs gorging on

pineapples, past headhunters with their poisonous darts

sheathed, mouths agape.

I wanted to outstrip Lady Godiva—her everlasting tresses,

her smirk of satisfaction shocking even Adam and Eve

as they cavorted in their own pleasure.

I wanted to be a swan on a lake in Shangri-La, folding

my wings around a lov...