Streaks of Scarlet
A Story in 100 Parts
He said, “You’re really an ugly girl
but I like the way
you play”
and I died
but I thanked him
can you believe that
sick, sick holding onto his picture,
dressing up every day?
Tori Amos
“Precious Things”
You broke me bodily
the heart ain’t the half of it
and I’ll never learn
to laugh at it in my good natured way
Of course, I’m laughing less in general,
but I learned a lot at my own funeral
I knew you’d be the death of me,
so I guess that’s the price I pay.
Ani Difranco
“Bodily”
You can’t fool the queen
cause I married the king
and maybe it I who betrayed his majesty
with no opposite reality
like a pond with no reflection
of the sky or the trees
but after my dreaded beheading
I tied that sucker back with on a string
and I guess I’m pretty different now,
considering.
Ani Difranco
“Manhole”
Michelle Greenblatt (August 21, 1982 - October 19, 2015) was the Poetry Editor for Unlikely Stories: Episode IV and previously served as Co-Editor of Poetry for the now-defunct AND PER SE AND. She was published in literary journals such as Poetry Magazine, Sugar Mule, Free Verse, Altered Scale, Sawbuck, Hamilton Stone Review, Moria, Shampoo, Coconut Poetry, BlazeVOX, X-stream, Counterexample Poetics, Word for/ Word, and Otoliths. Her solo books are brain : storm, (anabasis Press, 2006; Unlikely Books, 2017) and ASHES AND SEEDS (Unlikely Books, 2014). Collaborative books include Ghazals 1-59 and Other Poems with Sheila E. Murphy (Unlikely Books, 2017), Dark Hope with Vernon Frazer (Argotist E-Books, 2011; expanded as Definitions of Obscurity, Unlikely Books, 2016), and jump beast with Jukka-Pekka Kervinian (cPress, 2011). She lived in South Florida with her beloved, Kyle.
You can learn more at our memorial issue.
