"One Day at The Beach," "Tanked and Triggers," and "Under The Scalpel"
One Day at The Beach
Standing at the tide line, she waded into the foxed pages of her mind. She examined each wave as if an atlas of her days: paths and trails for which there was no memory of why she had followed them. One more page, dog-eared, blank. A wavelet splashed.
Sea spray conjured mirages dark and deeply mesmerizing. Shiny backs of waves rose and fell, and her breathing followed in harmonious union. Buoyant and without recrimination, she stepped into the swell singing. She sang the sea shanty her grandmother had taught her; the sea shanty sung on the boat coming over for a new life.
horizon bounces a ship
sea shanties wash ashore
singing flotsam rocks
Tanked and Triggers
lightly the street light that skinniest slice of shadow
sensors above pop startle illumination blind grope and the slice of it cuts no idea the gouge palmed a slow bleed another sensor betrays swaying body-trigger darts for dark
ticky-tacky like gum under shoe
sticky after whiskey beds down to lawn to ooze
between snore and sirens a drip of rain then more rain
threads a grass mat of tiny shots vessels of elixir
deluge the rough dreams of a dreamer stuck in cups
goblets bend so sway yellow pompoms other inebriated revelers lawned
wobble
wobble up and dump
Under The Scalpel
a new sun
for each eye
fileted //
in a saucy sunset of iodine
or is that a moon
a blood moon between
rubber gloved-thumbs
o sun-moon you stinky friend
come back to me across the ice
the gauze the clamp
counting backwards who should rise and who should set
there is no float off
no dream land -
tiny trucks haul the highways
of parasitic furrows those airbrakes suction
“you won’t feel a thing”
no I feel
every slow stitch and pull
on the landscape of sliced cheek
tug tug knot cut
cancer’s future cicatrice
Laura Winter lives in Portland, Oregon. Winter is author of poetry collections, broadsides and performance projects. A number of her poems have been translated into other languages. Winter’s forthcoming book, noble scratch, roughly spoken, features visual artist Brad Winter.
She performs with musicians, nationally and internationally, using language as an instrument. When performing poetry, the music of words is brought to the forefront for a captivating rendition of meaning. Winter encourages everyone to read a poem out loud. She encourages you to support your local food bank.