From Angela Howe Decker’s chapbook, “Splendid Catastrophe”

At the Tire Store

The man behind the counter
pulls out a catalog of tire specs,
licks the carbon-black tips of his finger as he flips pages.
He leans close and I breathe in the cigarette he had at lunch.
The thick scent of rubber and oil clings to him,
hangs in the air.

He hefts a tire from the racks
and slides his hands along the ridges
carefully, like he’s showing a prize horse.
He pinches the tread, explains balance and traction,
why this one is good in heavy rain.

The road, he says, is an animal.
Even when we feel safe it can
push us into trees, over cliffs.
No one is careful enough.

Once in a car, on a wet night
a man very much like this one kissed me,
slid his hands rough with every day work
beneath my sweater.
By the time he slipped his tongue,
soft as felt,
sharp with tobacco,
into my mouth
I knew I loved cars,
the solid machinery of travel,
the dangerous thrill of the open road.

I drive home on 16-inch Bridgestones
and the highway’s black pelt is slick with rain.
I think of men I’ve known,
consider what carries us,
what keeps us from sliding sideways
as we head into the dark.
One hand on the wheel,
our foot heavy on the pedal.

—

This selection comes from Angela Howe Decker’s chapbook Splendid Catastrophe, available from Finishing Line Press. Purchase your copy here!

Angela Howe Decker lives in Ashland, Oregon with her husband, two sons, and way too many pets. Her poems have appeared in African Voices, Hip Mama, The Wisconsin Review, Comstock Review, Jefferson Monthly, and others. She teaches introduction to poetry writing at Southern Oregon University and writes an art & literature column for the local newspaper. Her work appears in the recent anthology, Knotted Bond: Oregon Poets Speak of Their Sisters. Her chapbook, Splendid Catastrophe was published this year by Finishing Line Press.

Leslie LaChance‘s poems have appeared in Quiddity, JMWW, the Best of the Net Anthology, Apple Valley Review, The Greensboro Review, Juked, The Birmingham Poetry Review, Slow Trains, Free Lunch, Chronogram, and Appalachian Journal. She also edits Mixitini Matrix: A Journal of Creative Collaboration. Her chapbook, How She Got That Way, appears in the quartet volume Mend & Hone from Toadlily Press.

From Angela Howe Decker’s chapbook, “Splendid Catastrophe”

Mermaids

It’s the end of the Weeki Watchee Waterpark
and the mermaids are packing their bags.

Tourists don’t visit,
the tank leaks,
it’s easier to wait tables.

The oldest mermaid is 54,
collects fish figurines and sells
pictures of her younger self: bikini top and a blue-sequined costume.

She says folks don’t understand how hard these women worked.
How they could hold their breath forever and a day.
There’s a thin hose to sip out air,
but they have to brush their hair, drink RC cola,
and dance like it’s all true,
like they really are sea nymphs and the soda is good.

Not everyone can be a mermaid, she says.
Some girls freak out,
think too long about the twenty feet of cold water above them,
the skinny air tube, the heavy tail.

She even panicked once in ’68.
A gator got into the tank, but
it swam right past her,
like she was a cousin or something.
There was a moment where she forgot the hose.
Would’ve died but for the audience,
blurry outlines of men, women, and their daughters
clapping hands, stomping feet.
She could feel the vibrations in the tank,
knew she couldn’t disappoint them.

That was her magic moment,
when she believed she was real too,
So she flipped her heavy tail,
waved to the crowd,
and kept smiling.

—

This selection comes from Angela Howe Decker’s chapbook Splendid Catastrophe, available from Finishing Line Press. Purchase your copy here!

Angela Howe Decker lives in Ashland, Oregon with her husband, two sons, and way too many pets. Her poems have appeared in African Voices, Hip Mama, The Wisconsin Review, Comstock Review, Jefferson Monthly, and others. She teaches introduction to poetry writing at Southern Oregon University and writes an art & literature column for the local newspaper. Her work appears in the recent anthology, Knotted Bond: Oregon Poets Speak of Their Sisters. Her chapbook, Splendid Catastrophe was published this year by Finishing Line Press.

Leslie LaChance‘s poems have appeared in Quiddity, JMWW, the Best of the Net Anthology, Apple Valley Review, The Greensboro Review, Juked, The Birmingham Poetry Review, Slow Trains, Free Lunch, Chronogram, and Appalachian Journal. She also edits Mixitini Matrix: A Journal of Creative Collaboration. Her chapbook, How She Got That Way, appears in the quartet volume Mend & Hone from Toadlily Press.

From Angela Howe Decker’s chapbook, “Splendid Catastrophe”

Picnic

Teddy has cancer and can’t eat
so he feeds me.

When we meet at the park he lifts
Tupperware, foil-wrapped treats, napkins
from a brown grocery sack.
With papery
fingers, he
gives me onion latkes he made himself,
pickles from a deli in Medford.

I don’t want to eat
with him so thin,
so clearly dying.
But he hands me the food,
says someone has to have all this goodness.

He talks of being a kid in Hoboken,
his early friendship with Frank Sinatra.
How once they both got sick
on zeppoles, a fried pastry with ricotta cheese, cherries.

Teddy says he’ll be gone by winter.
He hands me an éclair and the
cream is so thick, it clings to my teeth,
the deep sweetness stays in my throat.

He talks of his dead wife,
the fireman’s dance where they met,
her saucy voice and quick wit,
the deep silence when she was gone.

—

This selection comes from Angela Howe Decker’s chapbook Splendid Catastrophe, available from Finishing Line Press. Purchase your copy here!

Angela Howe Decker lives in Ashland, Oregon with her husband, two sons, and way too many pets. Her poems have appeared in African Voices, Hip Mama, The Wisconsin Review, Comstock Review, Jefferson Monthly, and others. She teaches introduction to poetry writing at Southern Oregon University and writes an art & literature column for the local newspaper. Her work appears in the recent anthology, Knotted Bond: Oregon Poets Speak of Their Sisters. Her chapbook, Splendid Catastrophe was published this year by Finishing Line Press.

Leslie LaChance‘s poems have appeared in Quiddity, JMWW, the Best of the Net Anthology, Apple Valley Review, The Greensboro Review, Juked, The Birmingham Poetry Review, Slow Trains, Free Lunch, Chronogram, and Appalachian Journal. She also edits Mixitini Matrix: A Journal of Creative Collaboration. Her chapbook, How She Got That Way, appears in the quartet volume Mend & Hone from Toadlily Press.

From Angela Howe Decker’s chapbook, “Splendid Catastrophe”

Swing

After school,
my beautiful mother would wait for me by the swings.
She’d chat with the other moms,
flirt with the dads,
lean against a tree in snug jeans, gold stilettos.
When I came out of class, raced to her light
she’d step away from the gossip and the smiling men
to push me on the swings.
Even in those crazy shoes, she’d push strong,
tell me to pump my legs.

When I die,
I want death to come to me like my mother,
a wide smile and high, high heels,
hands pressed to my back
firmly pushing me to the sun.

—

This selection comes from Angela Howe Decker’s chapbook Splendid Catastrophe, available from Finishing Line Press. Purchase your copy here!

Angela Howe Decker lives in Ashland, Oregon with her husband, two sons, and way too many pets. Her poems have appeared in African Voices, Hip Mama, The Wisconsin Review, Comstock Review, Jefferson Monthly, and others. She teaches introduction to poetry writing at Southern Oregon University and writes an art & literature column for the local newspaper. Her work appears in the recent anthology, Knotted Bond: Oregon Poets Speak of Their Sisters. Her chapbook, Splendid Catastrophe was published this year by Finishing Line Press.

Leslie LaChance‘s poems have appeared in Quiddity, JMWW, the Best of the Net Anthology, Apple Valley Review, The Greensboro Review, Juked, The Birmingham Poetry Review, Slow Trains, Free Lunch, Chronogram, and Appalachian Journal. She also edits Mixitini Matrix: A Journal of Creative Collaboration. Her chapbook, How She Got That Way, appears in the quartet volume Mend & Hone from Toadlily Press.

From Angela Howe Decker’s chapbook, “Splendid Catastrophe”

Family Circle

At nine years old,
I help my parents get stoned.
This is a time when they are still friends.
Dad has a coffee table
with a secret door
for his small stash of marijuana, matches,
Zig-Zag papers.

While my mother lights candles and incense
like an abbess before evening mass,
he arranges his supplies with a precision
he lacks in ordinary life.

Like a surgeon or a master chef
he gently rolls a tight little cigarette,
sometimes in complete silence,
sometimes with a lesson:
The trick is to not overstuff the dooby.
I nod wisely, watch them,
plan a run to Taco Bell when they get hungry.

Soon, the house turns magical with lush, tangy smoke
whorls and whorls of it fanning from their mouths
spiraling from cones of incense
seeping from burning joints and orange candles.

I take my place by the record player,
wait for dad’s signal.
First he hums, then:
Put on the Creedence, Boo.

I play the album as he takes one more long hit
then sways into my mother’s arms.
They rise like a marvelous dragon
exhaling in a kiss
while the band croons about hoodoo chasing
and Bayou queens.

They each take my hand and
we make a clumsy sort of circle
a silly sort of family
giggling and dancing like
the children we were meant to be.

—

This selection comes from Angela Howe Decker’s chapbook Splendid Catastrophe, available from Finishing Line Press. Purchase your copy here!

Angela Howe Decker lives in Ashland, Oregon with her husband, two sons, and way too many pets. Her poems have appeared in African Voices, Hip Mama, The Wisconsin Review, Comstock Review, Jefferson Monthly, and others. She teaches introduction to poetry writing at Southern Oregon University and writes an art & literature column for the local newspaper. Her work appears in the recent anthology, Knotted Bond: Oregon Poets Speak of Their Sisters. Her chapbook, Splendid Catastrophe was published this year by Finishing Line Press.

Leslie LaChance‘s poems have appeared in Quiddity, JMWW, the Best of the Net Anthology, Apple Valley Review, The Greensboro Review, Juked, The Birmingham Poetry Review, Slow Trains, Free Lunch, Chronogram, and Appalachian Journal. She also edits Mixitini Matrix: A Journal of Creative Collaboration. Her chapbook, How She Got That Way, appears in the quartet volume Mend & Hone from Toadlily Press.