page 20

GERTRUDE AND EMILY

Gertrude I have your voice on a record
and I listen to it
when I do exercises in the morning
feeling your rhythms on my skin
Emily when Im lonely
I think of your face
with its quiet look of endurance
youre my friends
marking places in time
where my consciousness existed
before me
you had to hide
and so became obscure
Gertrude your language was called hermetic
as in 'hermetically sealed'
you were a nonsense woman
they tried to make you a clown
your writing was called
stream of consciousness
so it couldnt make sense
your consciousness

page 18

I want to tell you
what I want from you
and why
and why you.

I want you to love me

because I'm alone and lonely
because I've been shot
my eyes torn out
my throat cut
thorns in my ears and under my toes
and my heart ground down to glass

I want to love you

because your dovesoft eyes are shy
because you smell warm and alive
as dark as a dream of the sea
filled with phosphorescent anemonea
and the gold of reflecting mirrors

because you're a woman
and I'm a woman

and no woman ever called me cunt.

Bobbie Geary

page 19

page 16

from which i keep expecting my destiny to emerge
or better
wanting to construct
construct a wonderfully complicated structure
22 ideal bends
and lots of pipes
that will carry
all of my unhappiness
all of my i don't wants
all of the must nots
away around and down
down the sewer
into the Schuylkill
i've put my faith in pipes
i trust them
i know
pipes are always
always there
are carrying
carrying waste and rot and ugliness away
and bringing
bringing fresh clean cooling consoling waters

Diane Devennie

Invocation to Sappho

Sappho
Sister/Mother