Elinor Nauen
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 photo by Jadina Lilien This is the website of Elinor Nauen, poet, journalist, editor, and bon vivant. You've reached the home of all things Elinor! Not quite so new poemsThe Trouble with You Is you’re not the warmth of Lousiana in March where we run across tar to get out of town with a cat on a leash pretty primal: were there trees? plants? birds? Yes! a cuckoo or mockingbird or catbird— something gray — something with — a long tail — a cat is nature too straight south of Minnesota’s snow Great Day in the Morning I reckon I forgot to marry Ben Johnson & now he’s dead that boyish lanky cowboy a real cowboy & a movie cowboy & probably a Republican an icon can be whatever he damn well wants to be yes ma’am 6/ Bride May Be Icy What if what flashes past when you lie are small debts unpaid things lost remarks misunderstood like everyone, I regret only the undone what have you forgotten? only what I wish to forget what have you lost? only what I wish to abandon what do you regret? 8th grade 5/ Florida Rest Stop lake near silica quarry stinky turquoise hawk or eagle on fence post, so big swerve half off the road Haines City Frostproof Indian Lake palm trees scary drivers too old azaleas and something purple one deep plume at end of branch light tornado all the time 5/ “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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ |
New poemCat nap lap 6/ |
