'The fray of not caring,' 'She spruced up the bouquet,' and 'The 5 was much easier to write'

The fray of not caring

Splays into routine shrugs

Of a black sweater

With no wrinkles

Beaded so small you see dots

Aging as if swollen then

Retreating into

The double negatives

Of all those

Cocooned Q-Tips

 


 

She spruced up the bouquet

without caring

for the roots that used to live

in earth and touch

the repetition

of a t with straight lines

 


 

The 5 was much easier to write

The ampersand, less so

With nothing to wave your hand over

As if virtual nature quite interior

Overlaps

With how we see and feel

And have the fabric

Of orgasms

In pinpricks

 

 

Stacey Allam

Stacey Allam is 56 years old and has been married for 27 years. She has two children, 25 and 23 respectively. She's originally from Rego Park, Queens, New York, but has resided in Brooklyn for 28 years. She has been writing poetry most of her life.

Sheila E. Murphy

Sheila E. Murphy is the recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award for her book Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Her most recent book is Golden Milk (Luna Bisonte Prods, 2020). Reporting Live from You Know Where won the Hay(na)Ku Poetry Book Prize Competition (Meritage Press (U.S.A.) and xPress(ed) (Finland), 2018). Also in 2018, Broken Sleep Books brought out the book As If To Tempt the Diatonic Marvel from the Ivory. The chapbook Separation Theory (Writers Forum, 2004) was just reprinted (Trainwreck Press, 2022).

 

Edited for Unlikely by Jonathan Penton, Editor-in-Chief
Last revised on Monday, February 18, 2019 - 22:00