This Begging Jar by Janet I. Buck   

        

Short and straw beside a torch
inside imagined reckoning,
my books are virgins in your eyes
stacked upon a marble bench.
Spines uncracked as smooth pecans.
Pages play like hailstones
on budding fuchsias 
perfect in their tiny bells
threatening your fantasy
of little girls as flawless
as a chip-less shell
washing down a satin beach.

I shake my tiresome destiny,
pretending I'm a fist of salt,
not the meat of slaughtered lambs.
We chat about the Middle East,
but cannot touch the empty air
where you once dreamt 
a knee would sit in tasty curves.
Our silences piano scores
I've practiced hard until my hands
know ivory slats,
their sharps and flats like burials.
I curse at my guileless mind,
make pretty purses of my snakes.
The rain waits like an old woman
hugging her rusted hips--
too knowing, spooked
to open brittle begging jars.

Copyright © 2001 by Janet I. Buck.

Janet Buck's poetry, poetics, and fiction have appeared in CrossConnect, The Melic Review, Kimera, Recursive Angel, Southern Ocean Review, Stride Magazine, Urban Spaghetti, In Motion, OffCourse, Samsara Quarterly, Big Bridge, The Paumanok Review, The Pedestal Magazine, and a variety other print and internet publications. ?She is a two-time Pushcart Nominee, a recent recipient of The H.G. Wells Award for Literary Excellence, and one of six winning poets in the Kota Press Anthology Contest. ??In December 1999, Newton?s Baby Press released her first print collection of poetry entitled Calamity?s Quilt. Three others have followed in its wake: ? Reefs We Live, Bookmarks in a Hurricane, and Before the Rose. Janet was one of ten U.S. poets to be featured at the "One Heart, One World" Exhibit at the United Nations Exhibit Hall in New York City in April, 2000. ?In the year 2001, Buck?s poetry is scheduled to appear in The Montserrat Review, The Amercian Muse, The Carriage House Review, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Rockhurst Review, and dozens of journals world-wide.

Visit Ms. Buck's web site at www.JanetBuck.com. Be sure to check out her books and CD.

Look up other works by Janet I. Buck.

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