2 poems: Geisha and First Kiss of Rain
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[ed note: it is a rare, rare event for uber to accept poetry, so don't think we've changed our submission guidelines. we haven't. poetry isn't expressly prohibited there, but i'm just saying, it's rare. thanks.]
Geisha
As a woman
I have done many things
When young, I single-handedly liberated Tokyo from the
threat
of giant robots
Because of me, humanity was saved.
Later in life, I became a secret agent
I implanted mind-control chips in the heads of
unsuspecting clients -
senior politicians and company executives.
My feminine identity betrayed itself, however:
My fondest memories are of having men suck sushi
from between my toes
Yet, despite my achievements, I ask you, why,
When I pose,
does the artist not look me in the face?
I am not a flower wilting in a vase
Bound to bow my head
I dare you, paint my eyes.
First kiss of rain
an expectant father
wetting his lips
touches the cumulus belly
of a mother
one month overdue
spice and sweat
bleed through porous carpet
permeating the floorboards
each house soaking
in its own smell
Well done! a father coaches
points his daughter's aim high to
the mountains blue
squatting in the distance
I saw three ships two schoolgirls carol to the swing
of sticky hands, pigtails flapping
when they get home, they'll forget to call their mother
she'll arrive home in an hour, shirt soaking, laden with groceries
to find the fridge wide open
in their wisdom, cooling the house
Sandra navigates the isles
the bitter dregs of coffee berthed in the bays of her teeth
she pauses to peruse the purees
computing costs and benefits
brushes the label with her fingertips
fondles a bottle
then picks the reddest out
at the check-out she waits, credit card waving in truce
tensing for the moment
when to pay
Two teenagers, not yet a couple
swim towards one another as if underwater
holding their breath
hair buoyed by the mounting breeze
furls into a flourish
he will remember the troubled peace of this moment
the quiet before the storm
the pulse between the revelation
and the inevitable
Across town, trapped in a musting flat, a man and a woman
take their last stand over the ocean of a couch
hearts drowning - souls twisting adrift
she bottles up the howling and the hail of tears
And then the kiss
the teenagers fling apart
baptized by the lightening strike
of touching lips
and then the rain
and the rain
The skies rip open
and the man screams, his spittle pocking the surface
The girl and her father run for cover
rackets shielding their heads
mountains shrouded by a sail of clouds
bruised blue
And the cars don't stop
the drunk in the gutter
car lights and the water
flowing over him
when groggy he wakes, he'll struggle to a park
bench, steam rising from the grass
wetting his toes
Katarina Konkoly made us bend our submission guidelines.