Confidence

by Tom Schmidt

she is breathtakingly beautiful
in an eastern kind of way
dark hair cascading 
past slavic features
erotic voice rising
like smoke around you
the way it did in those 
old time movies
under chiaroscuro lighting
sharpening her face
the caterpillar eyebrows
and succulent lips
high cheekbones
running to a sleek nose
adorned with a wart
so perfectly symmetrical
perfectly acceptable
that men long to kiss it

Tom Schmidt writes: "My poetry chapbook, Passionate Intensity, was published by Pachyderm Press in 1996. A full sized book of my poetry called The Best Lack All was released in 1996 by Broken Jaw Press. My poetry and short stories have appeared in Blood and Aphorisms, Prairie Fire, The Wascana Review, sub-TERRAIN Magazine, Zygote Magazine, Burning Ambitions (anthology), Beyond Bad Times (anthology), Black Cat 115, Fan Magazine, Diverge Magazine, Stanzas, Front and Centre, Jesse James Chapbook Press, Kick it Over, the Unicorn Reader, like lemmings, Undertow, Treeline E-Zine, the Oyster Boy Review, Afterthoughts Magazine, Tickled By Thunder, Libel, Kairos 11, the Prairie Journal, imelod, Under a Prairie Sky (anthology), Our Fathers (anthology), and Blue Moon Magazine. I have had book reviews and articles published in Prairie Fire, Zygote Magazine, the Renovator, Ambassador Magazine, and the Winnipeg Free Press. I also recently did an Out Front episode for CBC national radio which featured some of my poetry. I am Manitoba Rep. for the League of Canadian Poets and I have served on the executive of the Manitoba Writers' Guild. I have given many readings at places such as Heaven Art and Book Cafe, Chapters, and McNally Robinson. I am also co-editor of Zygote Magazine. In 1998 I was the judge of the adult category of the New Brunswick Writers' Guild poetry contest."

THIS WORK IS COPYRIGHT OF THE AUTHOR.

THE DANFORTH REVIEW IS EDITED BY MICHAEL BRYSON.