Striptease

clause unfettered follows
spin, pole splicing through
of splintered dialogue
damp with wine
musty floor scraping
hard like that basket of pears we tried
lifting with pinkies only
this time, up again
unbuckle bra—must wash
and spin
for tomorrow's matinée
bikini wax
and Jarrid's track meet
he's a pee wee this year);
coy and playful the finale
yes: let's ride this moment
that smells like summer fruit

Escape Artist

if you'll kiss me like the curtain that despite the view of her planting if you'll kiss me in the treetops planting Chrysanthemums she was on the pillow crouching a tremor of linen you ask him breathe like this old girl in the spider droll applause still crouched in the feeling of a tremor if you'll kiss me despite the view of droll  in the courtyard linen you ask him if he'll kiss you in the pillow carefully feeling on the treetops your pulse like planting ask him if you'll kiss me like that time despite Chrysanthemums in the feeling of your pulse on the pillow as it carefully planting away a tremor of droll applause you ask him if you'll kiss me in the treetops like that time despite the view that young Chrysanthemums in the courtyard kissing your pulse on the pillow a tremor of droll applause like linen you kiss him as it carefully steals away

Nola Accili is a French instructor at the University College of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Her work has recently appeared in Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing (University of Hawaii), Room of One's Own (Vancouver), Jones Av. (Toronto), and Down in the Valley, An Anthology (Fraser valley, B.C.).

Email: Nola Accili

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