2 poems

SOMETIMES

when your eyes become ugly blue slits

and your mouth spits venom

straight into my veins

and your hands clench into round

bocce balls, I think

maybe I can give it all up—

the plush carpeting under my bare feet

the carefully placed knick knacks

on stained antique shelves

the plants trailing along the window sills

cable TV, the desk with my computer

my books and all my poetry

the patio where I sit

and listen to birds at the feeder

as I wave to a neighbor across the way

the dinners when the kids come

and we play husband and wife

laughing over desserts and a DVD

we rented from Blockbuster

yes, sometimes

I think I can give it all up

but most of the time I know

I am the slave who would rather die

by her master’s hand

than go out into that wide, wild world

with one small bag under her arm

and a resume with nothing to offer

but the skills of her bondage

THE PISCES CAFÉ

no one was over twenty

and there I was just past sixty

in my white Keds and Gloria V Capri’s

with an attaché of poetry

and a bottle of Poland Spring

they had pink or green hair

tongue & toe rings

chains around their necks & ankles

poems crumpled

in the back pockets of ripped jeans

and names like Clarity or Kat

I signed up for the open mike

trying to figure out what I could read

I had some death

and anti-establishment poems

but none with the F word

which of course was a big priority

O, they slammed and jammed

and their words were electricity

in the dimness of the café

and then I got up

with my tight ass poems

where every word was accounted for

every line in its proper place

and since everyone got applauded

and whistled at

of course they were polite

and gave me the some of the same

but I knew that sixty, or fifty, or even forty

just didn’t cut it

yet when I left some guy smiled

and said, “hey, I dig your poems”

but I figure he had a mother thing

you know, like he really dug her

I mean, really

Gloria is published in over forty literary journals including: The Paterson Review (in which her poem won an Editors choice award in the 2005 Ginsberg contest), Poet Lore, CQ Quarterly, The Bridge, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Limestone Circle, The Long Island Quarterly, Lynx Eye, Xandau. Ted Kooser presents one of my poems in his October on line ‘American Life In Poetry’. She has written a one-act play WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR? produced at The Theatre Studio, NYC., is the recipient of numerous poetry awards and a member of Live Poets Society, L.I., Performance Poets, L.I, and Poets & Writers, Inc. She does readings at various venues on Long Island.