Art and Design Commons^™

I Want To Remember, Mariel E. Valerio

The Tuxedo Archives

I want to remember

crawling into bed beside you

the way I remember

reading a poem aloud for the first time. ~excerpt from poem

Tell The Children: No Talking At The Dinner Table, Vanessa Leung

The Tuxedo Archives

Tell the children no talking at the dinner table

Ivory chopsticks striked down to sever unfinished

Articulations, into pieces of broken syllables.

All not knowing what malice they had inflicted,

Hurried with their sustenance and scattered

Behind walls. Try to make amends

In uncertain ways. Promise

No talking back, nor back-talking. ~excerpt from poem

108 Double Stitches, Robert D. Johnson

The Tuxedo Archives

So tightly I’m wound,

I recoil when struck.

Compressed like a spring.

I’m constantly fondled,

Examined and lifted on high.

A pale white complexion,

red lines all over my face. ~excerpt from poem

Fellow Traveler, Steve Galiani

The Tuxedo Archives

Gather round, be present!

Listen to words granted me

(presumptuous vessel)

by the muse. ~excerpt from poem

Vocation, Steve Galiani

The Tuxedo Archives

daybreak finds me

the freshest of flowers

dew-soaked, opening slowly

to the lighting sky. ~excerpt from poem

We Are Horses, Aijuana Bifri

The Tuxedo Archives

To read and to write is to breathe and to live and to eat and to drink

to sustain my life

when the pen and the pad and the life you had are put on stage

and on the mic

I need to read I need to write and over and over ~excerpt from poem

The Belly, Aijuana Bifri

The Tuxedo Archives

The Star-Spangled Banner plays and I don’t have my hands on my heart

next thing I know, I hear,

“You anti-American immigrant leech

if you don’t like America, why don’t you leave?

if you don’t like America, why don’t you go home?

you’ve talked shit about this country

expressing your pain in this country

aren’t you thankful we serve you in this country?

all you do is take money from this country

you ungrateful...” ~excerpt from poem

Better Than Grey, Tanya Tsikanovsky

The Tuxedo Archives

Our words slide off our tongues like marbles on wet floors,

too wet to stop gliding

And we soak up our thoughts like sponges,

wringing out the water we both now taste ~excerpt from poem

Feel No More, Natalie Padilla

The Tuxedo Archives

I can feel the prickle of the grass

And the cold, desolate ground beneath me

My body is weak as I struggle to wake

For I feel your presence surround me

A blade of grass comes into view

I tilt my head towards the blazing sky

Where the clouds cradle me with warmth ~excerpt

Cup Of Tea, Paula Garcia

The Tuxedo Archives

“Such a beautiful photograph,” she marvels

As she sits down where I used to lie.

You look at the picture as she asks you who I am.

For what seems like an eternity in your mind

You plead with God to help you mask the clouds

That are now thundering about in your head.

“Just an old friend,” you reply coolly,

After an uncomfortable second.

~ poem excerpt ~

No Drunken Frenzy, Kimberly Satterfield

The Tuxedo Archives

Chatter of cedar waxwings

is shrill this morning.

Must be fifty crested visitors,

scarlet-russet-gold breasts

glint iridescent. ~excerpt from the poem

Spin The Bottle, Jennifer Curtin

The Tuxedo Archives

A bottle turns feverishly on its side

a compass searching north, east, west, yes

pointedly at a predestined angel

of crackled lips and sweaty pits

A tender moment of locked eyes searching

the other’s approval and first move

for the fated instant~excerpt from the poem

Raquel, Ann Rathie

The Tuxedo Archives

I finally cut off my long red hair.

What a problem that was,

trailing behind me,

dragging on the ground attracting all that attention.

Swains swanning all around.

Rapunzel, I love you,

Rapunzel be mine,

Rapunzel let me wrap myself in your hair!~ excerpt from the poem