The Fitting

When you're not sure, remember those strange,
muffled sounds she made during sex, as if the coordinates
for buried treasure were caught
in her throat and she'd rather choke than share the gold.


from Taste of Cherry, by Kara Candito

2009 stats

states lived in: 2
flights: 4
bus rides: 0
train rides: 0
places lived: 2
low temp: -9
high temp: 92
cars driven: 5
car accidents: 0
pulled over: 2
speeding tickets: 0
times super mario 3 was beaten: 4
times super mario world was beaten: 2
weddings attended: 2
degrees: 1
poetry submissions: 57
poems published: 6
pills taken: approx. 400
corn mazes: 1
pumpkin ice cream/malts: 6
jobs held: 4
online lit mags started: 1
lady gaga songs downloaded: 3
breakfasts involving grits: 3
cockroaches killed: 11
cell phones broken/lost: 1
handmade scarves received: 1
pairs of shoes purchased: 2
ping pong trophies won: 1
chik-fil-a: delicious
chipotle chicken burritos: also delicious
thanksgiving dinners featuring both ham & turkey: 1
occasions involving glow-in-the-dark bracelets: 2
drink in hand badminton games: 2
cross channel frisbee: 1

Baptism

the men heaved the body on a picnic table wrapped in Glad bags
and tape and rolled the carcass on its back and split the skin down
the long belly, its guts oozing out--all beigy, peachy, and blue like
clouds of chewed bubble-gum or the bulbs of a wilted, worn-in coin purse.
Collapsed hoses, too soft and slick to pile up, spread across the lawn
in pearly pools. Then, carefully, the men excised the gall bladder
before it broke and spoiled the meat, gallbladder curled like a finger
on a folding chair beside them while they emptied the carcass to the snout.
On the grass, the heart and lungs lay, and the throat ridged and perfect
like a staircase.


from Bird Eating Bird, by Kristin Naca

I love Married to the Sea and You Should Too

marriedtothesea.com

Boxing Day

I have a poem up at Six Sentences.
It is not about boxing.

Happy Christmas, Piranhamoose

What skulks through the lonely forest? What has eaten all these squirrels?
What blood-spattered tracks lead from the site of this carnage back to some dank, brackish aquatic den?


Piranhamoose

What I am Doing While Snowed In This Week

1. Playing a lot of games on my sister's Ipod touch, especially Unblock Me,
which is an addictive puzzle game involving freeing one red block from a sea
of boring brown blocks. 1.5 days in, I am currently on puzzle 96 out of 400.

2. Playing a lot of Wii.

3. Eating a lot of pumpkin pie ice cream.

4. Reading Kathryn Regina (again)
and Karyna McGlynn
and maybe even the new issue of Gulf Coast

5. Writing elevator game flash fiction.