KRISTEN DAY

Kristen Day is an artist/writer living in Albany, NY. In the visual arts she enjoys painting, drawing, photography and particularly using all these mediums in collage. She has been attending various writing workshops affiliated with International Women's Writing Guild for some time, and, more recently, has been attending many local poetry readings/open mics with much delight in the ingenuity and artistry she has encountered there.

POEMS

AMPUTATION
RED YELLOW GREEN
SHARING THE LOVE

AMPUTATION

I had to amputate that thing called love
because hunger isn't satisfied with tomorrow
and today only increases the appetite
the stomach swells stretches pokes holes in itself
I cough up old lovers
and see for them for the first time
pale pieces of promises and rancid bits of ecstasy
what the body rejects
must be rejected
the body is a temple
majestic and eerie
the old wood is crying because nature reminded it
it's still alive
it's wailing is only heard by creatures who can give no comfort
I wish loneliness killed
instead of crippled


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RED YELLOW GREEN

Many Vietnam Veterans organizations use the colors red, yellow and green on their flags, banners, etc. This is to represent the colors on the ribbon of the Vietnam Service Medal.

Red, white and blue became
red, yellow and green
blue
blue like the serenity of oceans rearing up into skies
blue to green
like denim to fatigues
blue to green
like the family station wagon to canvas-covered trucks
all this fucking green
not brilliant life-giving green
but indifferent man-made green
white
white like all the possibilities of crisp paper waiting for scribbles
white to yellow
like teeth tainted from smokes coffee vomit
white to yellow
like the faces of hometown USA to the faces of the villages of South East Asia
white to yellow
like letters from home carried next to foul sweat-drenched skin
red
red like flushed faces drunk on life's affirmations
red fell into black
into a nightmare of dreamless sleep
and from black rose red again
red like screaming faces briefly lit in midnight battle
red like ribbons of guts inside-out
rages of red
but who to be red at?
When he comes home
parents and friends speak to him in red, white and blue
the TV broadcasts in red, white and blue
the streets are paved with red, white and blue
he must be blind
he only sees red yellow green.


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SHARING THE LOVE

a train is chased by a storm into the dusk

and the city pulls her children in
like chicks beneath the scurry of a hen

thin and sweet...the voice of a women
raises above the clammer of traffic
whispering...."stay with me"

in a broken flat a man curls his body around a bottle
listens intently to the rain compete
with the train upon the tracks

the whole world is hushed though an open window
as a mother lulls her child to sleep

an old house still lives
tucked between sky scrapers

in the curve of his dreaming wife
a husband finds sudden comfort
woken from a childhood memory that he long forgot

the whole world revolves with the ceiling fan

the dream is yours and the lips are mine
the miracle ours:
how we still find each other in the night


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