{"id":705,"date":"2010-06-10T14:19:45","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T14:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=705"},"modified":"2010-06-10T14:19:45","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T14:19:45","slug":"two-new-poems-by-karen-kelsay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/two-new-poems-by-karen-kelsay\/","title":{"rendered":"Two new poems by Karen Kelsay"},"content":{"rendered":"


Eyeball Prayer<\/span>

 <\/span>
Thank you, Lord, for my marvelous eyes;<\/span>
blue orbs that never witness sleeves creeping<\/span>
from laundry baskets, or see windows smudged<\/span>
by kitty noses. Eyes, that transform piles<\/span>

of books on the dresser into odd shaped flowers<\/span>
blooming beneath the mirror, and cause<\/span>
my kitchen sink to morph into a sterling band,<\/span>
without one water spot. Eyes, unlike<\/span>

my husband's, that capture everything in sight,<\/span>
roll around his head at untidy bed covers<\/span>
and go crossed, when large spoons mix<\/span>
with small, in cutlery drawers.<\/span>


<\/font><\/p>\n

# # # # #<\/span>
<\/font><\/div>\n



Sissy Girl<\/span>
 <\/span>
 <\/span>
By midmorning the splintery dock<\/span>
beneath my belly is already warm <\/span>
where it snags against my cotton shirt.<\/span>
I smash tiny balls of Wonder Bread<\/span>
between two fingers and balance them in a pile,<\/span>
ready to chum for smelt. Dad's dull pocket knife<\/span>
is my only device for sawing mussels off pilings,<\/span>
I crush them with a hammer, creating secret<\/span>
concoctions to entice the fish. Uncombed hair peeks<\/span>
over the dock edge as I hide from elusive victims.<\/span>
Shadows deepen against turquoise water,<\/span>
my drop-line, with one tiny weight threaded<\/span>
in the middle, pulls a bead of bread down.<\/span>
Fins flash and spiral a kaleidoscope of blue and gray.<\/span>
I sit for hours with an empty bucket <\/span>
where my prize fish should reside\u2014<\/span>
giddy with thoughts of many conquests,<\/span>
frightened to unhook a single mouth.<\/span>



<\/font>* Karen Kelsay<\/span> is a Pushcart Prize<\/span> nominee and the author
\n of three chapbooks A Fist of Roots,<\/span> Somewhere Near Evesham<\/span> and Song of the Bluebell Fairy<\/span>, published
\n by Pudding House Publications and The New Formalist Press. Karen <\/font>has
\nrecently launched an online poetry journal and e-chapbook publishing venture
\ncalled The Victorian Violet Press<\/span>
\n \u2013 click here for details http:\/\/victorianvioletpress.com\/<\/a><\/font>


<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eyeball Prayer Thank you, Lord, for my marvelous eyes;blue orbs that never witness sleeves creepingfrom laundry baskets, or see windows smudgedby kitty noses. Eyes, that transform pilesof books on the dresser into odd shaped flowersblooming beneath the mirror, and causemy kitchen sink to morph into a sterling band,without one water spot. Eyes, unlikemy husband's, that capture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}