Lipstick
With others, it was different:
colorless passion; sleep; shower.
Never before these tangled sheets,
this white heat or obsession.
In the morning, you scrub away
at crimson smears on your neck,
marveling at the paleness of your skin
beneath her color.
She kisses your mirror, “So
you’ll remember last night.”
As if you could forget.
Communion Song
To remember you in bread
is to know the importance
of being filled; I might swallow
a wedding ring, but it doesn’t learn
my body. The act of consuming
does not, by itself, tame hunger.
We drink a sweet wine to thank you
for something bitter, to remember
a public sacrifice in a place
as secret as our throats.
Estranged
Toile touching pillows, horizontal heads,
midnight confession — angel, she says. Heat
she breathes between whispering will burn red
then blue. Feet flitter together beneath sheets
with you. Irreverent, incandescent
undeniably changed, best friend birthright
lies enraptured, estranged — speaks incessant
of roses on does, lips twinkle gold in
twilight —
details, delivery deepen fright. Young
like we are, from another time. You have
to consider she’s losing her mind. Stung
me first touch but subsequently behaved.
You have no words. She will offer no name.
It isn’t by angels sister is claimed.
Kristin Garth is a Pushcart, Best of the Net & Rhysling nominated sonnet stalker. Her poetry has stalked magazines like Glass, Yes, Five:2: One, Former Cactus, Occulum & many more. She has six chapbooks including Shakespeare for Sociopaths (Hedgehog Poetry Press), Pink Plastic House (Maverick Duck Press), Puritan U (Rhythm & Bones Press March 2019) and The Legend of the Were Mer (Thirty West Publishing House March 2019). Her full length, Candy Cigarette, is forthcoming April 2019 (The Hedgehog Poetry Press), and she has a fantasy collaborative full length A Victorian Dollhousing Ceremony forthcoming in June (Rhythm & Bones Lit) and Flutter (TwistiT Press) in January 2020. Follow her on Twitter: (@lolaandjolie), and her website kristingarth.com
The Apologies
Three a.m. searching for the earth she was born in;
Snow that never melts.
The final chapter that begins again—
I’m sorry I didn’t clean the house.
The fucked-up way he said her last name
as if it belonged to his heritage. It got
to her.
Every day changes her—
every new love kills her;
She never wanted to answer his message.
no,
Yes, he insisted.
Once with thirty years of need
Riding over a city bridge,
She fell in love for the first time. I loved you.
Once, after thirty years of apologies
She fell in love for the last time I loved you.
St-Laurent river unchanging
under her lovers.
Death could crash inside her
Unquiet,
Troubled
Full of cancer cells
The dance of nail-biting sex
in two separate beds
I’m sorry I lied.
You’d think she made a thousand mistakes a day—
That the Achilles heel
Meant her funeral was approaching.
Her lonely coffin of lifeless
unedited manuscripts.
I’m sorry,
I loved you, too.
Christina Strigas is a trilingual poet, raised by Greek immigrants, and has written three poetry books. Her latest, Love & Vodka, has been featured by CBC Books in, “Your Ultimate Canadian Poetry List: 68 Poetry Collections Recommended by you”. She is currently working on her fourth upcoming poetry book, Love & Metaxa. In her spare time, Christina enjoys foreign cinema, reading the classics, and cooking traditional Greek recipes that have been handed down from her grandmother.
Fig-Lover
I could be your sweet girl
alive with groundwater,
my narrow passage
wasp friendly and edible.
One day you will find
my hollow ended stem;
a plethora of tiny flowers
heaving like an offering
from the heavens. Do not
flinch; I will blossom upon
the opening of your mouth—
bursting like a galaxy of stars.
Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas lives in the Sierra Foothills. She studied at Santa Clara University where she was an English major. She is a nine-time Pushcart nominee and seven-time Best of the Net nominee. In 2012 her chapbook Before I Go to Sleep was selected as a winning chapbook in the Red Ochre Chapbook contest and in 2018 her poem ‘A Mall in California’ recently placed 2nd for the Jack Kerouac Poetry Prize. She is the author of several chapbooks along with five full-length collections of poetry including Epitaph for the Beloved soon to be released from Finishing Line Press. She is the Editor-in-chief for The Orchards poetry journal and a member of Saratoga’s Authors Hall of Fame. She is also a member of The Sacramento Poetry Center Board of Directors. www.clgrellaspoetry.com
Chantarelle's Notebook 