Kate Greene / 6 Poems
POEM TITLED A FLYING SAUCER CLOUD RELIQUARIES THE MOON+
And I am not thinking of it
At a distance
I am three women watching three women
Tear open a satyr
Titillated
Obviously
Who among us hasn’t
Impressed upon the stipulated nipple
Wondering how
One must suck
One’s way out
POEM TITLED CONSTELLATION
It doesn’t make sense
but I’m flinting eruptinium
can’t start a fire without a blush
the pluperfect bedroll
patdown
another felonious purr
look at the “window” with me
thousands of stones fly above us
more coming
blinking
to tell someone everything
they would want to know
POEM TITLED REMEMBER
when you walked toward me
all your body naked
I loomed
a characteristic smile
took over your torso
and thighs
and I generated
please come next to me
we can keep going like this
I’ll read you equations from this
electrodynamics text
we’ll make them our own
to remember forever
and imprint of sorts
a poetry of small presses
POEM TITLED EASY WOOL SWEATER
Saw a devil in the clouds tonight
but that’s okay
turned out
to be a sweet-faced cat
floating toward venus
and i trust a cat even one
tinged
with green on the underside
the jet’s x passes through
taking them there
POEM TITLED WRITING FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE EYE
The night that holds
the sea that holds the body
waves crashing clouds
loosely fitted sheets
pressed to bed
again I dream of untying knots
and of light
sensuous kisses
a seashore in a town full of birds
and people
in love glowing
like worms
POEM TITLED SAY YOU’RE SORRY AND SO WILL I
the moon was in tears. angels gloomy
outdoors flowers were smoking cigars,
sidewalks laughed and became
sponge cake, block upon block
it was the day of a decision.
the wine turned to wine
a bouquet of questions gathered in hand
a beautiful fist, an apparition
it was the day a picture was taken
one of those from behind your head
you, looking at a person walking toward you
the photographer seeing neither of us
it’s times like these that i become overly concerned with the silk scarf,
its disappointing pattern, its greenness. or else
the engorged daisies, the floral filler the table
on which they sit. or else jejune paint
on walls, walls, the lengths of
walks in parks
the precise
temperature of the burning
its distribution
what have we done in these idle hours
*
books is a business like gay is a business
moustache trimmed, i want them to buy
the story of a girl who thought she knew what good was
needing to make something beautiful, she poured
gasoline into the stream of ice melt from the local glacier.
everyone, just a few people, gathered round.
look! a rainbow!
see!
+ POEM TITLED A FLYING SAUCER CLOUD RELIQUARIES THE MOON frst appeared in Hot Pink Magazine
Kate Greene is the author of the hybrid essay collection ONCE UPON A TIME I LIVED ON MARS (St. Martin’s 2020) and co-author of REALITY MINING (MIT Press 2014). She lives and swims in New York City. kategreene.net