Socks of Fire

Never mind that the manager instructed you to wear solid black or navy
socks. Hey little pistol. You’ll even forget the four fat fucks at table five. Want
to make some extra cash? You got the round table tonight and in these smokin’
socks you’ll serve chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and sawmill gravy
scintillatingly. Let me be your pepper, you salty centerfold. You. The star of the
Cracker Barrel Ballet and Roadside Freak Show. Your Glowing Charcoal
Argyle Socks (No. 555), dyed in China, will stay mid-calf as you dance to the
tune of cranky, deep fried okra. What time you get off? I’m staying at the hotel
next door. Even that 50-cent tip left by the two old crones is no match for these
swanky Uzbekistan-combustible-cotton, hand quilted socks. Another cup of
coffee hon. Your patrons will be amazed as you blaze through kitchen grease
seizing oversized portions of mac and cheese for their delight. More cornbread.
More biscuits. Then, sparks flickering from your ankles — the manager notices
your defiance. You are fired. You’re secretly thrilled. He calls you into his
office. You take a seat. Kick off your shoes. Light a cigarette from your hand
linked-heel.

Ribbed, stay-up tops. Made by India’s leading hosiery-maker to the upper
caste. $13. Glowing Charcoal Argyle Socks (No. 555), as described,
combustible cotton.

—

This selection comes from Susan Yount’s poetry chapbook House on Fire, available from Blood Pudding Press. Purchase your copy here!

Susan Yount is the Editor and Publisher of Arsenic Lobster, works full time at the Associated Press, teaches online workshops at the Rooster Moans and is the founder of Misty Publications. She recently earned her MFA in poetry at Columbia College in Chicago while working full time and raising her son. Her poetry has recently appeared in several print and online magazines including Roar, Jet Fuel Review, Booth Journal and Menacing Hedge. Susan is a 2003 recipient of The Lynda Hull Memorial Scholarship in Poetry and in 2010 she was awarded first prize in the 16th Annual Juried Reading competition at The Poetry Center of Chicago. In her spare (!) time she moonlights as madam for the Chicago Poetry Bordello. Her first poetry chapbook is the sequel to this one, Catastrophe Theory, and can be found at Hyacinth Girl Press.

Andrew Koch’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Bluestem, Connotation Press, Mojo, Rust + Moth, and others. Although a Tennessee-native, Andrew presently lives in Spokane, Washington with his wife and cat while teaching literature and pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University.

Butterfly Catastrophe

She was not a bride in Elmhurst,
a novice or a parallel fourth track
on Bad Religion’s 1996 album –
she was ripe like 1993 – like bending
drinking ditch fog – wrapped-up
in her warmest whitest fakest fur –
she was not a feminist. She was not a teardrop,
nor an actress. Her ass was not ground round.
Yes, she said, her middle finger had been broken
on a grade school classmate’s head.

She was not a scrawny snot nose
snottier than her scrawniest calf.
She was not alive during the famine –
not a mime, not a lesbian nor a riding horse at the county fair.
She was not a split-die operator, a sweetheart
or server at the Sheep Shed. She was not
the real mistress to a tire-making tsar –

and she never worked at Cracker Barrel
and she never danced naked in a corn field.

She was as wild
and sharp as claptrap–
as a car-surfer, as a damned
ringing bell.

—

This selection comes from Susan Yount’s poetry chapbook House on Fire, available from Blood Pudding Press. Purchase your copy here!

Susan Yount is the Editor and Publisher of Arsenic Lobster, works full time at the Associated Press, teaches online workshops at the Rooster Moans and is the founder of Misty Publications. She recently earned her MFA in poetry at Columbia College in Chicago while working full time and raising her son. Her poetry has recently appeared in several print and online magazines including Roar, Jet Fuel Review, Booth Journal and Menacing Hedge. Susan is a 2003 recipient of The Lynda Hull Memorial Scholarship in Poetry and in 2010 she was awarded first prize in the 16th Annual Juried Reading competition at The Poetry Center of Chicago. In her spare (!) time she moonlights as madam for the Chicago Poetry Bordello. Her first poetry chapbook is the sequel to this one, Catastrophe Theory, and can be found at Hyacinth Girl Press.

Andrew Koch’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Bluestem, Connotation Press, Mojo, Rust + Moth, and others. Although a Tennessee-native, Andrew presently lives in Spokane, Washington with his wife and cat while teaching literature and pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University.

House On Fire

This house is kindling—
with a wood burning stove.
He has her hiding in the bathtub

where she shaved her legs twice today.
She can hear the cockatiel tweet.
He shoves trees into the stove.

Her mother is a gray bluebird
toasty in a tarnished coop.
She can hear the green fern carol,

This house is a pyre—
A hot ham poked with cloves.
He has her hiding in the goat pen

where she fed her goats twice today.
She can smell the rabbits fry
in black cast iron skillets and grease.

Her sister is a chicken breast
baked dry on a cracked glass tray.
She can hear the horseweeds sighing,

This family aflame—
Roast beef and potatoes.
He has her hiding in the maples

where she kills herself twice a day.
She can hear the red stream calling,
a shallow ditch swelling with pain.

Her father, a devil,
his pitchfork in the hay.
She can hear the damp grass whisper,

Your house ablaze, get out.

—

This selection comes from Susan Yount’s poetry chapbook House on Fire, available from Blood Pudding Press. Purchase your copy here!

Susan Yount is the Editor and Publisher of Arsenic Lobster, works full time at the Associated Press, teaches online workshops at the Rooster Moans and is the founder of Misty Publications. She recently earned her MFA in poetry at Columbia College in Chicago while working full time and raising her son. Her poetry has recently appeared in several print and online magazines including Roar, Jet Fuel Review, Booth Journal and Menacing Hedge. Susan is a 2003 recipient of The Lynda Hull Memorial Scholarship in Poetry and in 2010 she was awarded first prize in the 16th Annual Juried Reading competition at The Poetry Center of Chicago. In her spare (!) time she moonlights as madam for the Chicago Poetry Bordello. Her first poetry chapbook is the sequel to this one, Catastrophe Theory, and can be found at Hyacinth Girl Press.

Andrew Koch’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Bluestem, Connotation Press, Mojo, Rust + Moth, and others. Although a Tennessee-native, Andrew presently lives in Spokane, Washington with his wife and cat while teaching literature and pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University.

Sissy

holds the bloated baby goat.
Tongue licks death. He bawls
recoiling neck and I cannot stop this.
Evident Baby is sick beyond kilter,
straw sticks to his teeth. Yet I
still pretend to call the vet
and help support Baby’s neck.

Sissy looks at me and blue eyes
balloon behind saline. Life whiffs
in her hands while the phone rants
off hook. She drops to her knees
opening frothy shriveled goat lips.

Breathes into him
as hard as she can.

—

This selection comes from Susan Yount’s poetry chapbook House on Fire, available from Blood Pudding Press. Purchase your copy here!

Susan Yount is the Editor and Publisher of Arsenic Lobster, works full time at the Associated Press, teaches online workshops at the Rooster Moans and is the founder of Misty Publications. She recently earned her MFA in poetry at Columbia College in Chicago while working full time and raising her son. Her poetry has recently appeared in several print and online magazines including Roar, Jet Fuel Review, Booth Journal and Menacing Hedge. Susan is a 2003 recipient of The Lynda Hull Memorial Scholarship in Poetry and in 2010 she was awarded first prize in the 16th Annual Juried Reading competition at The Poetry Center of Chicago. In her spare (!) time she moonlights as madam for the Chicago Poetry Bordello. Her first poetry chapbook is the sequel to this one, Catastrophe Theory, and can be found at Hyacinth Girl Press.

Andrew Koch’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Bluestem, Connotation Press, Mojo, Rust + Moth, and others. Although a Tennessee-native, Andrew presently lives in Spokane, Washington with his wife and cat while teaching literature and pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University.

Father Was a Hard Man

With windows rolled all-the-way
down and his motor-oiled hands
slapped around the steering wheel,
he drove slow over potholes.
His need-a-shave chin scratched my face
when I went with father from hayfield
to hayfield following my sister
on the Massy Ferguson.
She pulled the round bailer—
and we dragged the rake.

Pressed against father’s grisly body,
I was always hot & excited
to make it to the field
where I would be reunited
with my sister. Together,
we spun ‘round fields tossing-up
dusty wind-rolls of orchard grass.

We always ate
our peanut butter sandwiches.
We always drank
our frozen milk-jug of water.
He always came back at dark.
When we made it home,
I always packed
my Barbie doll case.

Dreamed of crawling out the window.

—

This selection comes from Susan Yount’s poetry chapbook House on Fire, available from Blood Pudding Press. Purchase your copy here!

Susan Yount is the Editor and Publisher of Arsenic Lobster, works full time at the Associated Press, teaches online workshops at the Rooster Moans and is the founder of Misty Publications. She recently earned her MFA in poetry at Columbia College in Chicago while working full time and raising her son. Her poetry has recently appeared in several print and online magazines including Roar, Jet Fuel Review, Booth Journal and Menacing Hedge. Susan is a 2003 recipient of The Lynda Hull Memorial Scholarship in Poetry and in 2010 she was awarded first prize in the 16th Annual Juried Reading competition at The Poetry Center of Chicago. In her spare (!) time she moonlights as madam for the Chicago Poetry Bordello. Her first poetry chapbook is the sequel to this one, Catastrophe Theory, and can be found at Hyacinth Girl Press.

Andrew Koch’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Bluestem, Connotation Press, Mojo, Rust + Moth, and others. Although a Tennessee-native, Andrew presently lives in Spokane, Washington with his wife and cat while teaching literature and pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University.