Cathedral

For Raymond Carver

Exhausted beyond dusk’s edge, she rushes into the smoke shop.
Patchouli smoke laces, washing into inks of green & violet tattoos.
Hendrix music floats, & neon light spikes windows of mouth
blown pipes, feathered clips, & amulets. People lounge on pillows,
centering a huffing hookah & shuffling tarot. She asks about
boxes. A man exhales the ocean’s breath, waving her slowly to the
back. Beyond goddess palettes & flickering cinematic clips, she
finds empty stacks: Cubaos, Trinidads, Romeo y Juliets, & others.
How much, she asks. Just take them all, he says. No charge.
Purses, altered books, & student art supplies’sift into fine colored
sand granules; layering her consciousness.

—

This selection comes from Alexandra Isacson’s Narcotic Silks, available from Dancing Girl Press. Purchase your copy here!

Alexandra Isacson is an Arizona State graduate who lives and teaches in the urban Phoenix area. Her poetry chapbook, Narcotic Silks, is recently published by Dancing Girl Press. She is also the author of Poetic Anthropologies, a tribute to the visual arts & humanities, published by Medulla Press (2011). Her poetry & prose appears in PANK, New World Writing (formerly The Mississippi Review), Blink Ink, FRiGG, & elsewhere. She is a Pushcart (2012, 2010) & Best of the Net Anthology (2009) nominee.

Leslie LaChance edits Mixitini Matrix: A Journal of Creative Collaboration, has curated The Wardrobe for Sundress Publications and written poetry reviews for Stirring: A Literary Collection. Her poems have appeared in literary journals, and her chapbook, How She Got That Way, was published in the quartet volume Mend & Hone by Toadlily Press in 2013. She teaches literature and writing at Volunteer State Community College in Tennessee, and if she is not teaching, writing, or editing, she has probably just gone to make some more espresso.

Salem, Mass.

I almost killed a man a year ago in Bostonhe
lugged my trunk up three flights of stairs.

In the vintage boudoir of rose wine & chocolates,

breathless, he rested beside a voluptuous
canopy iron-framed bed. I poured him a drink,

& his spirits lifted. He touched his forehead
with a cotton cloth, making small talk & asked.

I had packed my whole Lower East Side summer in there.

—

This selection comes from Alexandra Isacson’s Narcotic Silks, available from Dancing Girl Press. Purchase your copy here!

Alexandra Isacson is an Arizona State graduate who lives and teaches in the urban Phoenix area. Her poetry chapbook, Narcotic Silks, is recently published by Dancing Girl Press. She is also the author of Poetic Anthropologies, a tribute to the visual arts & humanities, published by Medulla Press (2011). Her poetry & prose appears in PANK, New World Writing (formerly The Mississippi Review), Blink Ink, FRiGG, & elsewhere. She is a Pushcart (2012, 2010) & Best of the Net Anthology (2009) nominee.

Leslie LaChance edits Mixitini Matrix: A Journal of Creative Collaboration, has curated The Wardrobe for Sundress Publications and written poetry reviews for Stirring: A Literary Collection. Her poems have appeared in literary journals, and her chapbook, How She Got That Way, was published in the quartet volume Mend & Hone by Toadlily Press in 2013. She teaches literature and writing at Volunteer State Community College in Tennessee, and if she is not teaching, writing, or editing, she has probably just gone to make some more espresso.

Wind Floozies

Petal turbans unfurl,
wet- winged in sibilant
laced lips of hushed pinks.

Buoyant calyxes, wind floozies,
gather in the flounce
of ribbon party dressesdrowsed
chiffons nod & drift off:
blowsy drunk with Bordeaux,
canapés, & raspberry truffles.

Bacchanal bees shimmer dizzy,
wing in dusted navel rings,
airbrush with pollinated feet
in sweet stings of stamen frenzies.

—

This selection comes from Alexandra Isacson’s Narcotic Silks, available from Dancing Girl Press. Purchase your copy here!

Alexandra Isacson is an Arizona State graduate who lives and teaches in the urban Phoenix area. Her poetry chapbook, Narcotic Silks, is recently published by Dancing Girl Press. She is also the author of Poetic Anthropologies, a tribute to the visual arts & humanities, published by Medulla Press (2011). Her poetry & prose appears in PANK, New World Writing (formerly The Mississippi Review), Blink Ink, FRiGG, & elsewhere. She is a Pushcart (2012, 2010) & Best of the Net Anthology (2009) nominee.

Leslie LaChance edits Mixitini Matrix: A Journal of Creative Collaboration, has curated The Wardrobe for Sundress Publications and written poetry reviews for Stirring: A Literary Collection. Her poems have appeared in literary journals, and her chapbook, How She Got That Way, was published in the quartet volume Mend & Hone by Toadlily Press in 2013. She teaches literature and writing at Volunteer State Community College in Tennessee, and if she is not teaching, writing, or editing, she has probably just gone to make some more espresso.

Silk Hexes

1. Sea Mysteries

In the equestrian season of sea tide & sand swept anemone, he
shared his sky glass. Beneath the curve of his raven wing, he
dazzled her breathless with the many mirrors of the earth.
Sometimes, it was the birth of stars in the nebula of Orion, & other
times, the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. By flowing silk mane of
horseback, they spiraled into the Milky Way, & he offered her the
rings of Saturn. Despite his alchemies, her poetries vexed him,
tying his mind in knots. Once he got lost in the tangle of her words
& hair & could not find the Northern Star, Polaris, without her
direction. Together, in the tether of leather reins, & thigh grasp of
horseback, she shone like Venus to his naked eye.

2. The Atlas Moth

She stole away clothed in cool moon glow. During entrancing
walks, she visited the liquid fields of the Atlas Moth. She reflected
in the triangulated windows of his wings. He exhaled silk threads
from the underbelly of his soul. In the split spectrum of alembics,
she spun herself into the skin of dancing veils.

—

This selection comes from Alexandra Isacson’s Narcotic Silks, available from Dancing Girl Press. Purchase your copy here!

Alexandra Isacson is an Arizona State graduate who lives and teaches in the urban Phoenix area. Her poetry chapbook, Narcotic Silks, is recently published by Dancing Girl Press. She is also the author of Poetic Anthropologies, a tribute to the visual arts & humanities, published by Medulla Press (2011). Her poetry & prose appears in PANK, New World Writing (formerly The Mississippi Review), Blink Ink, FRiGG, & elsewhere. She is a Pushcart (2012, 2010) & Best of the Net Anthology (2009) nominee.

Leslie LaChance edits Mixitini Matrix: A Journal of Creative Collaboration, has curated The Wardrobe for Sundress Publications and written poetry reviews for Stirring: A Literary Collection. Her poems have appeared in literary journals, and her chapbook, How She Got That Way, was published in the quartet volume Mend & Hone by Toadlily Press in 2013. She teaches literature and writing at Volunteer State Community College in Tennessee, and if she is not teaching, writing, or editing, she has probably just gone to make some more espresso.

Naked Chardonnay

Before she slips off her silk
kimono, with paint- stained hands
he holds a wintered Russian sable
brush & slowly strokes her cheek
down to her throat.

Her body tenses & softens into
a winged opera of evening light.

His touch was like the supple brush
of a mink a lover had warmed her
with during a snow flurried walk
from The Lincoln Center to catch
a cab for dinner, drinks, & a hotel.

Now, sharing chardonnay,
she kisses his mouth & dark
stippled face. Casting off herself,
she disappears into canvases
charcoaled & crayoned in winter’s
dusk & other subdued nudes.

—

This selection comes from Alexandra Isacson’s Narcotic Silks, available from Dancing Girl Press. Purchase your copy here!

Alexandra Isacson is an Arizona State graduate who lives and teaches in the urban Phoenix area. Her poetry chapbook, Narcotic Silks, is recently published by Dancing Girl Press. She is also the author of Poetic Anthropologies, a tribute to the visual arts & humanities, published by Medulla Press (2011). Her poetry & prose appears in PANK, New World Writing (formerly The Mississippi Review), Blink Ink, FRiGG, & elsewhere. She is a Pushcart (2012, 2010) & Best of the Net Anthology (2009) nominee.

Leslie LaChance edits Mixitini Matrix: A Journal of Creative Collaboration, has curated The Wardrobe for Sundress Publications and written poetry reviews for Stirring: A Literary Collection. Her poems have appeared in literary journals, and her chapbook, How She Got That Way, was published in the quartet volume Mend & Hone by Toadlily Press in 2013. She teaches literature and writing at Volunteer State Community College in Tennessee, and if she is not teaching, writing, or editing, she has probably just gone to make some more espresso.