M Christine Delea's Blog, page 52

What Is Love If Not Rot? by Jane Wong

What Is Love If Not Rot?

by Jane Wong

online at the Seattle Public Library Seattle Writes web site

I’ve been watching videos of rotting oranges on time-lapse again – it’s barely noticeable at first – the pores begin to grow, craters of no importance – after 14 days, the skin thins out, rice paper thin, wind thin, loneliness thin – at 15 days, spots bloom like a newborn galaxy or a bald buzzard – circling, a shadow returning winter’s wail – the skin puckers in on itself, all chimney ash, al...

The saint takes the monster to church & the monster catches a cold by Mary Ann Clark

The saint takes the monster to church & the monster catches a cold

by Mary Ann Clark

published in The Scores

Here is a body.

There are muscles for cruelty, muscles for kindness;

there is poison and there are sweet shrill enzymes;

there is love and dirt. We are going inside.

The saint doesn’t know much about bodies, how they inscribe their excrescences on the

earth.

This is just a room with living things in it.

There is the flank by flank of us, the stink of us,

the zoo-ness, the how-do-y...

When's Your Birthday?: Poetry Prompt

For this week's prompt, you are getting your poem's first line.

I am using a calendar I have for this one. Look for your birthday month; the "line" after that is inspired by the picture that is on my calendar for this month.

(Full disclosure: this prompt comes from my sarcastic sense of humor. When I flipped the page to May last week and saw the photo, I immediately thought, "Oh, yeah. When it comes to May, I think of koalas.")

This is, by the way, The Nature Conservancy's beautiful 2022 cal...

Rain for Days by Diane Holland

Rain for Days by Diane Holland

published in Crab Orchard Review

And the sky closed, but now the TV weatherradar screen shows the few last showers,here and there pale green, red at the core

with downpour. Suddenly the screenis awash in deep green, what appearsa deluge, a flood. Pay no attention—

it's just the migrating birds! Just the birds?How many must there be, streaming outof the north on their urgent, necessary way,

revealed by an instant pulse of energysent out where our eyes...

Gaudy by Cassy Dorff

Gaudy

by Cassy Dorff

published in Rust+Moth, Winter 2021

The bird book called him America’s most

gaudy bird. Some said the king cakes

in New Orleans were gaudy

and the Mardi Gras beads too,

gold, green, and purple inelegance

thrown from floats in the parade. Now

in central Texas, I look for this

bird in the Lost Pine Forest

wondering if he will be gaudy,

like the brassy god inside me

and the twinkling drag queens

who introduced me to the next world.

I want the sight of this bird to cut

my ...

May Day: Poetry Prompt

Today is May Day, and there is a lot to unpack with this holiday.

First, it is often celebrated as the unofficial start of spring. Festivities can include making garlands, wreaths, and crowns from vines, branches, and flowers; dancing around a May Pole while wrapping it in ribbon; and making and giving flower bouquets.

May Day is also the International Workers' Day. This celebration honors workers (especially blue and pink collar), their contributions to societies worldwide, and the Labor Move...