Three Poems


by Wendy Taylor Carlisle


About the South

Polka dots go there to be reborn under a dry sky
that revels in its deep knowledge of jay

and a carcass on the verge associates with vultures
under a storm of Kudzu vines, proliferating

as barn cats writhe and posture according to their calendar
and corn knows the tribulation of becoming hominy

where scattered tinfoil attracts a murder and its crows
as mamma fries the Sunday chicken, peppered,

dipped in egg and rolled in flour, fends off
rumors of Coon stew served with pone, the leftovers

fed to more than one kind of hound,
where  an honorific loves its Christian name

and the past settles on all of us like cotton dust on its picked field.


little prayer

Lord of the belly laugh
let me come to a silly old age.

     Let me cackle
     Let me chuckle and grin all day

Let me be sometimes in the company of the Marx Brothers
and the Roadrunner and Fat Freddy’s Cat.

     O Lord,

 if you love me, let me not be pompous or self-important

     (very often).


My Memoir

Some days my history is as unknowable to me as any stranger’s.  Clouds, a swirl of brilliance, tropical fish at my toes, the tall house darkening the Connecticut shore, its summer porch and stairs, rooms that questioned the sea.  Did I cry to be taken into grandmother’s bed?  Did she have one long braid?  In the harbor, a motor launch comes out to a pontooned plane.  Was there a shy first step into the rocking boat?  On the bleached boards of the dock, did fishermen turn an octopus inside out? I always had bare feet. The cook’s toes slapped behind me on the tile. Memory, unreliable narrator, you are no more to me than any desire, the shaping stone on which the best stories are honed.

 
Bio: Wendy Taylor Carlisle is the author of two full length poetry books and two chapbooks.

Read about her work at www.wendytaylorcarlisle.com
 
 

1 comments:

  1. i love about the south. corn knows the tribulation of becoming hominy.
    beautiful

    ReplyDelete

Tell us what you think.

 

Donate

Passionately Ran, Compassionately Fed.

About

Belle Rêve Literary Journal is a southern literary experience. Our mission is to capture everything that makes the South and its residents unique through the best contemporary literature we can find. We publish new works weekly.