Copper and Blood by Janet Buck

Featured Writer: Janet Buck

Copper and Blood

Friday sky of blue/white gauze --
perfect as a layer of paint.
Autumn seems a nice acquaintance
much like dust upon a book.
Speakers blast with rock n' roll.
Tires squeal -- happy otters sliding rocks.
Traffic seems to have no brakes;
I wish hope could be the same.
At 5 p.m., my husband's hand
will rub the brass and he will feel
for something soft beneath my shirt
as I wash lettuce in the sink.
I barely hear the radio
through music of the chirping robins
dancing in a bath I've drawn.
Across a bitter continent
on deathly quiet Eastern streets,
a sniper fires -- a body falls.
Seven victims in a month.
Profiles of the killer say
he's overjoyed at owning
slabs of black and white
that bang against the door of dawn.
Funeralmarchesruntogether.
Maybe there's no real god
to punctuate, correct a word like
hate applied to every corner of this earth.
Pamphlets in a mourning service
won't replace the missing warmth
in seven sinking king-sized beds.
Seven victims in a month
know nothing now of harvest gold
but nutmeg strips of bullet shells.

Along the Seine

You read it in a cheap romance.
"Paris: the city of lights."
No doubt every cobblestone
along the Seine was cashew whole,
plump and curved,
salted by some ancient lover
strolling barefoot on a cut.
It had to be a garlic clove of better art
than some old prairie sitting here.
You hop the Concord,
armed with empty diaries.
Plan to glow and gather
moorings of the moon.
Divorce yourself from dust
and cattle, apron strings,
from stirrups and a country road.
You'll pencil in some slick affair,
consider it the street of dreams.
I let you go like
a bracelet falls in a ditch.
Tip my hat and walk away.
Knowing us, the garden
growing thick with corn
is amber you'll discover soon.
The Seine is just another
lover's bleeding lip.
Nuggets of the evening stars
sit firm in pockets waiting here.

Janet Buck, Ph.D. is the author of four collections of poetry. Her work has appeared in CrossConnect, Zang Spur Review, Pif Magazine, The Dakota House Journal, The Melic Review, Stirring, Countless Horizons, Ascent, Tapestry, The Rose & Thorn, Avatar Review, pith, Perihelion, In Motion, OffCourse, and hundreds of journals world-wide. In the year 2000, Janet was of ten U.S. poets to be featured at the "One Heart, One World" Exhibit at the United Nations Exhibit Hall in New York City. Her poem "Acrylic Thighs" was translated into five languages and paired with original artwork. The tour traveled to France, Australia, Vietnam, Brazil, and Japan. In 2001-2002, Buck's poetry is scheduled to appear in PoetryBay, The Montserrat Review, Runes, The Pedestal Magazine, Concrete Wolf, The Carriage House Review, Swagazine, PoetryRepairShop, Slow Trains, Verse Libre Quarterly, Wicked Alice, Facets, Southern Ocean Review, Artemis, The American Muse, and The Pittsburgh Quarterly. Recent awards include The H.G. Wells Award for Literary Excellence, First Place in Kimera's Poetry Contest 2001, Editor's Choice Award for Sol Magazine, and the 2001 Kota Press Anthology Prize. In 2001, Janet's poem "The Teapoy" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by The Pedestal Magazine. Janet Buck is a three-time Pushcart Nominee and the author of four collections of poetry. Her work has recently appeared in Three Candles, Red River, Pierian Springs, Stirring, PoetryBay, Offcourse, Ascent, The American Muse, and hundreds of journals world-wide. In 2002-2003 Buck's poetry is scheduled to appear in Zuzu's Petals Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Gin Bender, Artemis, The Montserrat Review, Recursive Angel, The Foliate Oak, Southern Ocean Review, The Pedestal Magazine, Coelacanth, Cordite, CrossConnect, and The Oklahoma Review.

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