FEATURED POETS
FEATURED POETS
FEATURED POETS
FEATURED POETS
FEATURED POETS
Hedy Habra
The Memory of Unspoken Words
After Siren by Frédéric Clement
She has landed on the deck of an abandoned wreck, fails to
remember how she swallowed the fiery ball that pulled her like a
tidal wave into the stillness of a metallic sky steeped in lavender
where angry clouds hover around the drowning sun suffused with
coral. Her pillow is a melted cloud filled with birds that forgot how
to fly and now swim in a pool that overflows the deck, washing the
souls of dead sailors from every leak and corner. She presses on her
eyelids to find a different ending to their story, sees her body glow
with scales and the fish in the pool grow wings. She knows every
drop of water will vanish at dawn, erasing with black ink her
luminous shape alive only in the formless night, and the rainbow will
soon shine over a boat with discarded bags heavy with the stained
memory of unspoken words and broken planks.
First published by Pirene’s Fountain & Aeolian Harp Series Anthology of Poetry Folios, Vol 3
From Under Brushstrokes (Press 53 2015)
The Upright Piano
After Piano on Fire by Andrew Ferez
I see myself out in the cold, draped in a silk nightgown, seated
barefoot on a stool by that upright piano, you know, the one my
mother bought when she thought I should take piano lessons, while
others played during recess, oh, how I first struggled striking notes
daily, practicing scales, then rehearsing Mozart’s “Rondo alla Turca”
till I’d play it in my mind relentlessly, tan tan tan . . . tan tan tan . . .
even when I knew I’d never learn another piece, and now, half a
century later, I am drawing with memory’s wavering lines that same
piano to make it the vessel of my heart’s message, of so much left
unsaid buried in a bitter well turning into notes that rise in tongues of
cold fire licking my insides with every key I touch, unharmed, I feel
the piano ablaze under my fingertips, twisted candles adorn its top
that grows into a tower and turrets spouting flames from windows,
a menace to the adjacent branches, my fingers wildly strike the
keyboard while the sky opens up like a stage filled with shimmering
damask memories dancing to the melody like maddened fireflies.
First published by Knot Magazine
From Under Brushstrokes (Press 53 2015)
Desert Song
After The Kiss by Federico Zarco
It all started when he set out in his suit and tie, searching for a sand
rose in the desert. Wandering through dream’s thresholds, he hoped
to unearth a treasure that would resist the drought of feelings, each
millenary facet telling of the innumerable ways love can be
immortalized. He must have taken a wrong turn since all he found,
erect like a menhir, was a fossil. Was it the hip of a dinosaur, or
rather a Titan’s, lost from times beyond memory, so smoothed by
the scorching sun that it bore no signs? Looking closely he saw an
open jaw with pointed teeth and a hole where an eye once stared. He
feared he had to return empty handed in time for his date, but
realized with terror that he had no recollection of the path
that led him there.
First published by Danse Macabre
From Under Brushtrokes (Press 53 2015)
The Camisole
After Hotel Room, by Leslie Sealey
The silk fabric slides between my fingers, I still feel the softness of its
essential oils, permeating my skin, pungent and smooth as though I’d
woven it just for you with spikes harvested from endless lavender
fields in Provence, or as though I were a silk worm raised on
lavender petals, and I’d spun that silken thread to wrap around me
when you’d finally come, all that and more I dreamt of offering you,
year after year, and here we are, that is, my camisole and I, waiting
for you in the silence of that hotel room.
First published by The Innisfree Poetry Journal
From Under Brushstrokes (Press 53 2015)
Or Could I Finally Be Allowed to Leave My Analyst?
After Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst by Remedios Varo
I am leaving his office with my hair standing on end. No iphone at hand, or else that
would have made a great selfie. I walk out with a steady stride, tired of these useless
sessions. After all, am I not reconciled with my dark side? No more makeup to hide
the once widening circles around my eyes: I’ll let the gray show on my temples, allow
my electric hair to rise and curl at will, catching sunlight and moonbeams in its
spires. I don’t need him anymore but he doesn’t seem to know it. There’s still work to
be done, he says, wants me back over and over again. I have no more stories to tell,
no more foggy areas to recover, forge and weld. Has he become addicted to my
voice, or does he see his own shadow reflected in my dreams? See, this is the story
of my life: analyzing instead of being analyzed, entertaining instead of being
entertained.