Elinor Nauen

This is the website of Elinor Nauen, poet, journalist, editor, and bon vivant. You've reached the home of all things Elinor!

The Big Joke

the big joke
of all the small betrayals
is what they
add
up
to:
someone else entirely
who doesn’t mind
being
dead
or over there
or over
looked who doesn’t
mind
manners or rules or
the quick change
just out of sight
“her life” “your life”
might be sleeping lying
wait
for
the last betrayal

4/08

Poem

Smitten


Train Poem

without karate
Kyoshi D--- says

you are rushing to the grave
I hate to break it

to him
my cat’s feet

smell like detergent
my sweet potato does too

the V train takes
me & 3

Korean women
to incorruptible Augustine

it’s not as fun to be god
now that choosing

colors for monkey butts
is taken care of

maybe god could focus
on better haircuts for those women

or tell me if I should go blonde
or to Jamaica

where I will fall
for a handsome rasta

I could never marry

a man who didn’t trip

I could never marry a man

rushing to his grave

4/08

What We Carry

B--- thought everyone despised him
because he was black
and M--- that she didn’t get her fairshare
because she was female
but it was because they were jerks
there’s always a prize
if we slice thin enough
I want the prize for being awake right now
the cat’s perfect weight
cancels my breath
the coffee’s french’d & milk’d
I hate that photo because
he isn’t thinking of me
what else should his life be?
what should my life be?
I could do 105 pushups
I could not do 105 pushups
I could take a bath
the inland sea, they called it
but I could say the coastal prairie
the high plains
of giant sky and prairie dog
big wind & mini pasque
the bull was a bully
only the corn was the same size
as me
so I love corn
now the cat is on the floor
now the coffee is in my brain
now my brain is peppered with hieroglyphics
now Johnny turns over
to think of me once more

3/08

Dangerism

those wacky Romanians
& Homeboy Sandman
& whack kills
& her husband is
y’know

dead

“I caught Ebola & didn’t notice”
I only notice
America
it’s where
I am
with no crack in it

“& that’s my comic & tragic story”

3/08


That Black Man You’ve Been Loving

All the men on the R
train have big
silver ear rings
that are ear
pieces for music they don’t share

Dust my broom
Robert Johnson
before the Rolling Stones
got at him
Love in Vein
is pretty
great
too. Didn’t the Stones
sing “the blue light was my baby”
and wasn’t that
pretty good
before we knew it was his
blues?

3/08

“I found an eyeleaf in your arms”

My printer was squeaking
& only printed pink.
My eye was twitching
& does again.
My other eye grits
I wait it out.
Eddie was typing up poems &
decided to write some new ones.
New thoughts keep complaints at bay.
A woman said Hi to me
then, Buddy! to her puppy.
“I may as well
have a baby
since I don’t have any
poems.”

5/08