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Womannotated – Wide Eyed

January 23rd, 2021

Wide Eyed 

I get disheartened when an artist tells 
me they’re bored.  It’s especially brutal 
if I’ve adored you and the art propels 
my own rhetoric, research,
collections of folders some might besmirch. I think 
Stanley Kubrick would have approved though I’ve 
no warehouse of boxes when I’m extinct 
to prove my passion for working still thrives 
between poems and books.  We live 
amidst fascinations.  If we stay spry,
wide eyed enough, work is transformative. 
Suture eyes shut someday after I die
with the stories I’ve written, some I hoard. 
I’ll die exhausted.  I never lived bored. 

Continue reading “Womannotated – Wide Eyed” →
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Womannotated – Big Teeth

January 17th, 2021

Big Teeth 

Deep in the forest in a flannel nightdress,
a little girl lingers without much on 
her chest, shame in her heart, much to confess.
Here she is safe, completely at rest.  Gone 
the behemoths of yesteryear.  Her cheek 
on chenille, her brain bereft of all fear 
inside this night sans starlight except a meek
constellation of which faithfully appears
from a bedside nightlight replacing a moon
which made her weep more nights than swoon.  Tonight
she looks no father than this light of her room
which is not a metaphor — means to write.
No beseeching big teeth inside these woods — 
it ends with her pen like make believe should. 

Continue reading “Womannotated – Big Teeth” →
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Womannotated – Pretty Maids All In A Row

Pretty Maids All In A Row

after Servant

Rambles past ringlets, ruffles, rouge to you, 
end of the queue, interviewed for the show,
television lady forgets your debut —
segment you are someone she chose to know.

Her fascinations are fleeting and slight,
provincially dressed princess one night.  Lives
she catalogues on oak shelves in plain sight. 
Decades of ingenues in her archives,

Continue reading “Womannotated – Pretty Maids All In A Row” →
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Womannotated – Atheist Barbie

December 19th, 2020

Atheist Barbie 

is unavailable in stores. Believes 
in Christmas trees, Taylor Swift Evermore
with little distinction between the motifs — 
cute aesthetics without fealty sworn. 
Like dollhouses dissected their families, some 
pink plastic posed preternaturally 
replacing puritans overcome 
with prayers, prurience, pageantry,
incest upstairs. A ripped Sunday school dress,
nothing beneath, long hair dyed forever noir,
fresh balsam wreath. Believer in kindness 
and twinkling lights, blessings in boudoirs,
tempestuous nights. deprived of her breath.
Nothing is deeper than sex, not even death. 

Continue reading “Womannotated – Atheist Barbie” →
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Womannotated – Hirsute

December 6th, 2020

Hirsute 

In middle school, bullied for body hair. 
Matched hair, eyes, contrasted fair skin, a shroud
I wear everywhere. Was so scared
to shave above the knee. Was told no one 
should look there anyway.  Was whispered of 
so many days in locker rooms by some 
with blonde peach fuzz which was what love
looked like, at this time, to me, Florida 
yellow/tan uniformity.  Was called 
a fiend, witch from another place, not of
the beach I breach, a plaited pouting pall 
their boyfriends chased, animal they want to taste,
shadow to hide inside this golden place.

Continue reading “Womannotated – Hirsute” →
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Womannotated – The Dirty Truth About Butterflies

November 29th, 2020

The Dirty Truth About Butterflies

It’s easy for a religiously bred

(misled) girl to make an Eden of

a garden, angels of winged soon dead,

repopulating in three weeks. But love’s

amino acids butterflies won’t find

in agapanthus nectar, waterfalls —

Continue reading “Womannotated – The Dirty Truth About Butterflies” →
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Womannotated – Radiant Heat

November 21st, 2020

Radiant Heat 

This is the time of day sunbeams cross my 

mattress, imprison flesh atop its breadth. 

Each breath, bee balm, bids eyelash butterflies 

vibrate; no body lies in wait bereft 

its pleasures just because it is alone

but moans all illuminations shone through nude 

windows. Your radiant heat upon bones,

Continue reading “Womannotated – Radiant Heat” →
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Womannotated – Holding Pond

October 7, 2020

Holding Pond


Kristin Garth

Gills desiccating, you glide through his house,

hair towel dried, Oxford shirt, slouched, secured 

with belt made oversized dress — yours doused

in his tank, under duress. Damp, demure

while you saunter down bifurcated stairs,

some guests the servants were unaware, out

his front door then driveway, street. Unprepared —

Continue reading “Womannotated – Holding Pond” →
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Womannotated – Oh Cult!

October 17th

Keith Raniere and Allison Mack poetry by Kristin Garth and Marisa Silva Dunbar

Kult Ken 

by Kristin Garth

divides women and the men, considers
mind control at ten when he learns listen
is not the same as care.  Schoolgirl Skippers 
are chatty, everywhere, dripping poison 
from lonely little tongues.  Learns to use it against
them young.  Can do it with a dad bod, sweat-
band, night volleyball game with lessons condensed —
marketing, pain.  Boss Barbie in hand,
he will walk home tonight.  Tomorrow she will 
ask him before she takes a bite, now hungry 
only for what she deserves.   Holes he fills
before the next underhand serve where she 
waits on bleachers for it to happen again —
molded obedient female companion.

The Introduction: November 14, 2006

by Marisa Silva Dunbar

We are now witnesses to the origin
—here is where he ensnares you.
You are mesmerized—girlish—giggly, 
and desperate for your worth to be seen
by this man in a sweatband and kneepads. 
We know it’s just a seedy facade. Some 
of us have at one point, wanted to be 
loved by a mediocre man 

Continue reading “Womannotated – Oh Cult!” →
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Womannotated – Bower

Bower

I am the tree arched over your yard 

abrading sky above the shards of what once 

were contents of your Instagram life, guarded-

by-Doberman duplicitous wife, crunched

digital frames, board games amidst piled piss

yellow leaves.  I have outlived any you grieve. 

Continue reading “Womannotated – Bower” →
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Womannotated – Dead Sea

Dead Sea 

Saunter through snapdragons, the cobblestone path

inside his house, into a bath prepared 

with Dead Sea salts by a sociopath— 

Continue reading “Womannotated – Dead Sea” →
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Womannotated-Girlarium

Two Girlarium sonnets:

Continue reading “Womannotated-Girlarium” →

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Womannotated – The Second Time

August 29th, 2020

 

The Second Time 

She offers flesh beneath aromatic trees

against dark gates without password, key, sign  

her kind is welcome here —  save kerosene 

in lanterns near.  Arms in grate, stretched supine,

between dove gray sky, columbines, beside 

cobblestone of almond, slate.  Closes eyes,  Continue reading “Womannotated – The Second Time” →

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Womannotated – Death In The Air

August 16th, 2020

(Content warning:  horror, death, suicide, some discussion of Midsommar with what could be considered general, mild spoilers)

Death In The Air

A scent in twilight past breaths of the beast 

who stalks the edges of forests on the 

phalanges of feet, quickening heartbeats 

of little lost girls, panting in pine trees 

near the end of the world.  Pale hirsute ear 

you peer where the needles are bare.  Eyes straight 

ahead, mutter pieces of prayers.  Fear 

Continue reading “Womannotated – Death In The Air” →

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Womannotated – Crow Castle

August 9th, 2020

Crow Castle

Each maiden slumbers in her childhood bed.

Crow collects a lock from each, twines a nest

with garden twigs, hair ribbons azure, red—

sufficient room for one without a guest. Continue reading “Womannotated – Crow Castle” →

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Womannotated – Why Charlie Can’t Leave The Factory

July 26th, 2020

Why Charlie Can’t Leave The Factory

After a reveal of cotton candy sheep being
shorn for confectionery purposes in the
Burton Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film:
Willy Wonka – “I’d rather not talk about this one.”

You peer a possible pasture in a
pink corridor.  Perhaps peeking proves it?
Perchance a perpendicular door plays
with peripheral vision, pomegranate
sheep producing shorn candy floss piles pruned
to palatable heaps?  Panicked to peep
 Continue reading “Womannotated – Why Charlie Can’t Leave The Factory” →

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‘Nceba, mzala’ by Perfect Hlongwane

Son of my favorite aunt,

I greet you from above the waters;

Waving but not drowning.

Continue reading “‘Nceba, mzala’ by Perfect Hlongwane” →
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A tale of three descendants

always.the.same.year (2020), 2048×2048, digital: Here our faces plunge into the endless vanity of social media until the bubbles stop. Our digital selves/saviors are the ones bleeding sanity from our tarnished skin.
Continue reading “A tale of three descendants” →
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Womannotated – Golden Ticket

 

Two Golden Ticket Dark Chocolate Sonnets:

IMG_2432

illustration by Amy Suzanne

Pipe Dream

“He’s changed!” said Grandpa Joe, peering down through the glass wall of the elevator. 
“He used to be fat! Now he’s thin as straw.” Grandpa Joe on Augustus after the pipe,
Roald Dahl Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

 All they saw, “thin as straw” Augustus who

once was not.  Boy almost boiled inside

a chocolate pot, consumed post fudge room

before the change.  Chocolate liquefied

Continue reading “Womannotated – Golden Ticket” →

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First Person Shooter of the Heart by Jane Judith

Continue reading “First Person Shooter of the Heart by Jane Judith” →

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