New Poem: I Remember (November 1963)

Posted on July 9, 2019 by stevieslaw

Here is the second poem just published by Misfit Magazine:

 

I remember November 1963

It was the Saturday
after they’d gunned
down Kennedy.
Too cold for b-ball,
we huddled
in the schoolyard
and talked
at half voice.

We didn’t notice Joel
at the corner of the chain link
until he began to kick
it and scream,
“I’m so ugly.”

And he was.
It was as if
he was sculpted
from a single piece of granite
by an indifferent artist
who said—
“This is good enough,”
and put it aside.

We didn’t see the gun
until he put it
to his head
and pulled the trigger.
We all heard the empty click
and the wail of utter despair.

I remember that click
as clearly as I remember
that last motorcade.
And, I remember,
that even after he dropped
the pistol,
not one of us
ran to help him.

Posted in gang gang dance, poetry | Tagged | Leave a comment

Home Front—new poem

Posted on July 8, 2019 by stevieslaw

I had two poems published in the current issue of Misfit Magazine.  Here is the first of them and the link:

http://misfitmagazine.net

The Home Front— 3/16/68

She couldn’t have been
more than 19 or 20.
When I looked closely
I could still see
the little girl in her.

She’d spent the day
recruiting for SDS
and now,
was holding court
in the basement bar
on the avenue
that separated town and gown.
The evening’s
protest had dissolved
into beer and peanuts,
as it always did
for our group
of graduate students
dressed in radical drab.

She was smiling—
her hands speech-rhythmic
in the half light
as she presided over
a dissection of my life.

She pictured me a coward
nineteen different ways—
my research evil—
my deferment a cop-out—
as my former friends
sat drinking and smoking,
and shaking their hairy heads,
as if the gift of great wisdom
had been miraculously
bestowed upon them.

I was no match for her—
she was sharp
as an acid etch.
My stammered protestation
sounded—even to my ears—
like a confession.
And, of course,
she was right.

At 2, we stacked the chairs
on the tables and filed out.
It was cold and clear—
a million stars seemed
poised to tell us
something magical,
as that wisp of a girl
marched them off—
a ragged band
of the righteous
in combat boots
leaving me
to the silence
of the streets.

I turned up the collar
of my beat-up corduroy coat
and began to walk
cross-campus.
It would be mid-morning
before I’d finish
this set of experiments.

 

Posted in gang gang dance, poetry | Tagged | 4 Comments

I Lost Summer Somewhere

Posted on July 5, 2019 by stevieslaw

great book. you should get yourself a. copy

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

My Poem First Kiss

Posted on July 1, 2019 by stevieslaw

My poem, First Kiss, was just published in the Spring/Summer issue of the Mojave River Review. Here is the poem and a link to the issue:

First Kiss

 

Back in the early 60’s 

you didn’t need a crystal ball

to tell the neighborhood 

was going to hell.

Even the children knew—

acquiring a wariness

like some sixth sense for city kids

 

In the summer of ’62,

I sat with her

for as long as the lengthened

evenings allowed,

on the stone steps

that served as a front porch.

My friends and hers

buzzed about us like gnats.

 

We talked about the future.

At twelve, every thought is of tomorrow.

I remember our knees would touch

now and again

like a promise

 

The neighborhood spawned

moving vans and U-Haul trucks.

Those with any money at all

were fleeing to the South Shore—

to brand new split-levels

with three bedrooms

and a bath and a half.

My dad, a master of irony,

would strike a pose 

and intone: 

“To a little bit of heaven

on a quarter acre lot.”

My family stayed.

 

She left in August

just before the start of school.

I’d like to tell you I kissed her goodbye

as the overloaded van

sat idling on the Avenue,

Mozart played Requiem on our baby grand,

and the Brooklyn sky

sported both sun and moon.

But, I suppose, you might not believe me.

 

https://issuu.com/mojaverivermedia/docs/mrr-vol5no1-spring-summer2019_final

 

Posted in gang gang dance, Humor, poetry | 2 Comments

New Poem: Hiraeth

Posted on June 1, 2019 by stevieslaw

My poem is in Pure Slush’s seven deadly sins volume Pride.  Here is a link to the book. http://bit.ly/PrideBk

and here is the poem. Fun to write this one.

Hiraeth

Sure, Moses qualifies
but it’s hardly a stretch
to include those
DNA ghouls—
lanced and shorn—
who purpose their lives
in finding
some fabulous
ancestor—
hoping they might puff
up their emaciated chests
like frigatebirds
in heat
and point excitedly to
an illustrious branch
of their family tree—
but seem, always,
to come up with
monkeys.

 

Posted in gang gang dance, Humor, poetry | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Stevieslaw: New Poem-Fumarole

Posted on May 9, 2019 by stevieslaw

My poem Fumarole was just published by the Broadkill Review. Here is the poem:

“Fumarole”

Here is the link:

http://broadkillreview.com/

And the poem:

Fumarole

“You know,”

Tony said with a smile,

“they’d like

to vent volcanoes.”

“Drill into them

to relieve the pressure—

imagine

gas escaping.

like steam

from a giant’s teakettle.”

We were drinking coffee

at the counter of Abe’s

on Bristol Street.

Two eggs up, bacon,

and a toasted bagel.

Tony had given up

on the bagel.

He was missing

two front teeth

and his face looked like

he had lost an argument

with a Mixmaster.

He was tall and dark

with a laugh as contagious

as measles.

But somewhere,

in the tangled machinery

above his eyes

he had a screw loose,

and out of the blue

he would blow.

Then, for a few

frantic minutes,

Tony was a human

wrecking ball.

Last night,

he had hunkered

out of the way

as his ex parked

her dad’s car,

then he took a baseball bat to it—

sweating and swearing,

he shattered

windshields and lights.

The dad and two friends

caught up with him later,

as he walked home alone.

“They will kill you,”

offered Abe,

“If you keep

that crap up.”

“Sooner or later,”

I thought.

Everyone did.

“But the drilling

is more than likely

to set it off,”

Tony said,

squeezing his napkin

into a quarter inch ball.

“The eruption,

that is” he said,

sweeping his

meaty hands

up over his head

to show

how the volcano,

when tampered with,

would blow.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

“Perhaps You Can.”

Posted on May 7, 2019 by stevieslaw

My first book of poetry, “Perhaps You Can,” was just published by KelsayBooks. Click here.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Stevieslaw: New Poem in Third Wednesday

Posted on May 4, 2019 by stevieslaw

My poem, Saul and Sam, was just published by the print journal Third Wednesday.  I’m in good company Sarah Russell, Majorie Maddox Hafer and Ted Kooser also have poems in this issue.  Here is the poem:

 

Sam and Saul

 

The twins were prodigies

in math and music.

Saul played cello,

Sam the violin.

By the time they were three

experts were measuring

the elasticity of their brains

and listening

to their rendition

of Pachelbel’s Canon

with tears in their

calculating eyes.

 

We preferred The Stones

to Pachelbel

and treated the guys

as if they were normal.

Mostly they were,

as long as you didn’t invite

them to play poker

at stinky B’s after basketball

or try to beat them

at Scrabble or chess.

 

Saul sickened and died

the year they were to start

at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Our parents spoke of leukemia—

murmuring “blessedly quick,”

as if a mantra to ward off evil.

They buried him on a day in March

so raw, it was a relief

to be in the overcrowded synagogue

listening to sorrow

recited as it should be—

in the ancient language

of Torah.

 

After the service,

Sam sat all alone

in the bitter cold

outside their apartment building

and played his brother’s cello—

it was the most beautiful thing

I’d ever heard.

He played through the sunset.

He played until

his father gently took his hand

and helped him up

to their half-empty home.

Posted in gang gang dance, poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments

Stevieslaw: My poem, As One,

Posted on April 9, 2019 by stevieslaw

My word poem, As One, was just published by Eclectica. Here is the poem:

As One

Only yesterday, I found
the seeds you bought me,
on a sagging basement
shelf—miraculously dry.

There was no note,
might one have said—
with these, the past and present
exist simultaneously?

There are dozens of packets—
a well deep with flowers to bed,
many with names
and shapes I do not know.

I will plant them as closely
as we were once.
A skein of color so entangled
it dissolves with distance to a singular blaze.

And here is a link to the issue:

http://www.eclectica.org/v23n2/toc.html

Posted in poetry, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Stevieslaw: Lion’s Breath

Posted on April 8, 2019 by stevieslaw

My poem, Lion’s Breath, is the spotlight runner up in poetry in the new April/May issue of Ecelectica.  Here is the poem:

Lion’s Breath

At yoga yesterday,
while downward dogging,
our instructor asked us
for five rounds of lion’s breath.

It’s easy—
when you exhale, stick your tongue
out as far as it will go
and with the gruesome face
that pose ensures
make the most godawful
rasping noises.

After two repetitions
I began to laugh.
I thought how wonderful
my father would have found the practice.

I imagined him lion-breathing
on the checkout line at Walmart,
during a sappy love scene
at the local twelve screen,
and at the insomniac’s gin game
under the lights at Century Village.
He’d teach technique to every child
that crossed his path
and one hundred years from today,
his descendants would still be
disrupting kindergarten nap time—
picture the peals of pure joy,
as a room of five-year-olds
discovers lion’s breath.

And here is the link to Eclectica:

http://www.eclectica.org/v23n2/toc.html

 

Posted in gang gang dance, Humor, poetry | 2 Comments