An E-Zine of Poetic Variety
Muse Cafe Quarterly
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| Ellyn Maybe |
THE SKY IS FALLING
I rolled a poem into the body of a telescope and looked through it to see
Henny Penny and her shrill megaphone,
the skin of the sky is falling.
The sun has stretched its parchment across the clouds like a trampoline
How many people die each year jumping into airplanes,
their parachutes unopened like a letter banished from the alphabet.
From the ankle to the knee there is a sonnet prone to flight.
From the thigh to the hip,
there are 1000 curtsies made of lead
16 expectations
How many obituaries do you type per minute?
There's a piece of flesh underneath the arm
it tickles
it's an incubator
How many times did you feel pregnant when you felt your fingernails itch?
How many times did you drink orange juice and sandpaper
in a glass with little umbrellas
and think you were having fun?
Humans are so architectural
building such great walls
We walk stethoscope to stethoscope
two by two
Noah is clearing his throat
There's an almanac in every ark.
If a punching bag has 100 m.p.h. velocity and there is no hurricane,
just a family reunion,
How far has the apple fallen from the tree?
How many streets pave America?
How many orchards?
TURNING PAGES
If anyone ever reads 5,000 words a minute,
I place my syllables of breath it will be you
trading pacifiers and Gerbers
for algebra and metaphysics
protégé of broken nose music,
soundtrack to a life of iron and garlic
wise meant weird meant war
the gall of the bones in your nose
plucked like a banjo by a heavy hand
whose conscience had lost its sense of smell
Claiming no rhythm and still you dance
you spin music like a weaver
with a wink and an illuminated harp
you dance like Fred Astaire is breathing mints
and cartwheels through your hips
What is the equation for the life problem?
6 x fist = words.
CINEMA DANCE
Cinema plus dance
Invocation, fezzes, hot chocolate
UNESCO barrier reefs
Unseen Griffin
Deer crossed with horse
a hybrid…just like us
we come from all over the Globe
shaken like a snow crusted city in a
Medieval handstand.
We gleefully take towns by storm with our
Merry Prankster bus selves
3 and a half days of cameras, ping pong and pivo.
We compose a shot list from confetti.
We are part speed of light
Jules and Jim at midnight
We resist the temptation to crawl into the world
and pull our psyches over our heads.
In a universe where dance ruled,
we'd see fewer body bags..
We are Cinemascope.
Chromakey with chromosomes.
We are taking back the ozone layer that tries to stomp
artists out and put them in tiny flowery picket places.
We go where others have gone and others will go.
Van Gogh and Truffaut danced once.
It's an everlasting dance.
We are one tin can line away from the sky.
We need our exuberance more than our math.
We need to let our lights shine.
Cinema Dance is the longest magic hour.
Let us leave a bread trail.
Our bread crumbs are evident.
Feeding the soul is society's true hunger.
Dobre Chut!!!
PARALLEL UNIVERSE
Sometimes I wonder if there are one million people
listening at the same time
to the same Leonard Cohen song.
the one that keeps people from killing themselves
It's a long playing record
It's a long song
Where do people play each other the songs that will keep them standing
when one foot in front of the other is more myth than practice?
I once tried to play Beware of Darkness by George Harrison for a friend,
cause its beauty and pain were singular at that moment and
I wanted to share
I wanted us to hear as close as we could the same thing and
make of it what we would
He said he heard that song when it first came out and ran out
to smoke a cigarette
We lost something in that moment
I listen to music alone, but I imagine there are sharp notes bending the
backs of the universe into more flexibility, more love,
more tenderness, more a capella chiropractors
Somebody is strumming 3 basic chords and
somebody will live through the night.
THE PARTY MIND
There are childhood parties where people play pin the tail on the donkey
trying to complete the physiology of the animal.
There are parties every day where people play pin the logic on the Universe.
Whole countries get so drunk they can=t find their car.
There are games of twister where natural disasters consist of people brought
together only by chemistry,
leaving their rocket scientist diplomas in a pile of dirty looks by the sink.
There are parties where the name tag is the only thing
one is certain of
doubt this
doubt that
cufflinks
formal illusions required
no casual banter
Just enough panic to go around twice.
DO YOU FEAR ME
Do you fear me cause I wear
a purple friendship bracelet?
Do you fear having me as a friend?
Are you afraid to introduce me
to your grandparents?
The only perfect thing about me
is my perfect lack of confidence.
Does that freak you out?
I'm fat.
How does that sit with you?
I wear political pins.
Does that bother you?
I'm a bookworm.
Does that depress you?
Are you terrified
cause I've been bas mitzvahed?
Are you scared
cause I think spiders are sacred?
I'm left handed. ooooooooooooo No comment.
Do you worry about me cause I'm a virgin?
Cause I'm loud and sometimes embarrassing,
are you wary of spending time with me?
I know where the feminist bookstores are
in a whole bunch of states.
Does that make you tremble?
People think I'm younger
and older than I am.
Does that reflect badly on you somehow?
I don't always comb my hair.
Can you hear it coming?
Is it my ugliness or beauty that
frightens you the most?
Are you afraid of me cause I'm human?
I rolled a poem into the body of a telescope and looked through it to see
Henny Penny and her shrill megaphone,
the skin of the sky is falling.
The sun has stretched its parchment across the clouds like a trampoline
How many people die each year jumping into airplanes,
their parachutes unopened like a letter banished from the alphabet.
From the ankle to the knee there is a sonnet prone to flight.
From the thigh to the hip,
there are 1000 curtsies made of lead
16 expectations
How many obituaries do you type per minute?
There's a piece of flesh underneath the arm
it tickles
it's an incubator
How many times did you feel pregnant when you felt your fingernails itch?
How many times did you drink orange juice and sandpaper
in a glass with little umbrellas
and think you were having fun?
Humans are so architectural
building such great walls
We walk stethoscope to stethoscope
two by two
Noah is clearing his throat
There's an almanac in every ark.
If a punching bag has 100 m.p.h. velocity and there is no hurricane,
just a family reunion,
How far has the apple fallen from the tree?
How many streets pave America?
How many orchards?
TURNING PAGES
If anyone ever reads 5,000 words a minute,
I place my syllables of breath it will be you
trading pacifiers and Gerbers
for algebra and metaphysics
protégé of broken nose music,
soundtrack to a life of iron and garlic
wise meant weird meant war
the gall of the bones in your nose
plucked like a banjo by a heavy hand
whose conscience had lost its sense of smell
Claiming no rhythm and still you dance
you spin music like a weaver
with a wink and an illuminated harp
you dance like Fred Astaire is breathing mints
and cartwheels through your hips
What is the equation for the life problem?
6 x fist = words.
CINEMA DANCE
Cinema plus dance
Invocation, fezzes, hot chocolate
UNESCO barrier reefs
Unseen Griffin
Deer crossed with horse
a hybrid…just like us
we come from all over the Globe
shaken like a snow crusted city in a
Medieval handstand.
We gleefully take towns by storm with our
Merry Prankster bus selves
3 and a half days of cameras, ping pong and pivo.
We compose a shot list from confetti.
We are part speed of light
Jules and Jim at midnight
We resist the temptation to crawl into the world
and pull our psyches over our heads.
In a universe where dance ruled,
we'd see fewer body bags..
We are Cinemascope.
Chromakey with chromosomes.
We are taking back the ozone layer that tries to stomp
artists out and put them in tiny flowery picket places.
We go where others have gone and others will go.
Van Gogh and Truffaut danced once.
It's an everlasting dance.
We are one tin can line away from the sky.
We need our exuberance more than our math.
We need to let our lights shine.
Cinema Dance is the longest magic hour.
Let us leave a bread trail.
Our bread crumbs are evident.
Feeding the soul is society's true hunger.
Dobre Chut!!!
PARALLEL UNIVERSE
Sometimes I wonder if there are one million people
listening at the same time
to the same Leonard Cohen song.
the one that keeps people from killing themselves
It's a long playing record
It's a long song
Where do people play each other the songs that will keep them standing
when one foot in front of the other is more myth than practice?
I once tried to play Beware of Darkness by George Harrison for a friend,
cause its beauty and pain were singular at that moment and
I wanted to share
I wanted us to hear as close as we could the same thing and
make of it what we would
He said he heard that song when it first came out and ran out
to smoke a cigarette
We lost something in that moment
I listen to music alone, but I imagine there are sharp notes bending the
backs of the universe into more flexibility, more love,
more tenderness, more a capella chiropractors
Somebody is strumming 3 basic chords and
somebody will live through the night.
THE PARTY MIND
There are childhood parties where people play pin the tail on the donkey
trying to complete the physiology of the animal.
There are parties every day where people play pin the logic on the Universe.
Whole countries get so drunk they can=t find their car.
There are games of twister where natural disasters consist of people brought
together only by chemistry,
leaving their rocket scientist diplomas in a pile of dirty looks by the sink.
There are parties where the name tag is the only thing
one is certain of
doubt this
doubt that
cufflinks
formal illusions required
no casual banter
Just enough panic to go around twice.
DO YOU FEAR ME
Do you fear me cause I wear
a purple friendship bracelet?
Do you fear having me as a friend?
Are you afraid to introduce me
to your grandparents?
The only perfect thing about me
is my perfect lack of confidence.
Does that freak you out?
I'm fat.
How does that sit with you?
I wear political pins.
Does that bother you?
I'm a bookworm.
Does that depress you?
Are you terrified
cause I've been bas mitzvahed?
Are you scared
cause I think spiders are sacred?
I'm left handed. ooooooooooooo No comment.
Do you worry about me cause I'm a virgin?
Cause I'm loud and sometimes embarrassing,
are you wary of spending time with me?
I know where the feminist bookstores are
in a whole bunch of states.
Does that make you tremble?
People think I'm younger
and older than I am.
Does that reflect badly on you somehow?
I don't always comb my hair.
Can you hear it coming?
Is it my ugliness or beauty that
frightens you the most?
Are you afraid of me cause I'm human?
Ellyn Maybe is the author of The Cowardice of Amnesia (2.13.61), The Ellyn Maybe Coloring Book
(Sacred Beverage), Putting My 2 Cents In, Walking Barefoot in the Glassblowers Museum (Manic D
Press), Praha and the Poet and A Talk With Nature. She also has a CD, Ellyn Maybe Live. She has
read all over the country, including Bumbershoot, the Poetry Project, the New School, Taos Poetry
Circus, South by Southwest, Lollapalooza, Albuquerque Poetry Festival and Seattle Poetry Festival.
She has also read in Europe at the Bristol Poetry Festival, on the BBC, and in poetry slams and
readings in Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart. She opened the MTV Spoken Wurd Tour in Los
Angeles. In addition, she has also read at USC, UCLA, CSUN and Cal State Fullerton, among other
colleges. Writer's Digest named her one of ten poets to watch in the new millennium. Her work has
been included in many anthologies, including Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word
Revolution, Poetry Slam, Another City: Writing From Los Angeles, Poetry Nation, The Outlaw Bible of
American Poetry and American Poetry: The Next Generation. She was on the 1998 and 1999 Venice
Beach Slam teams. She was seen reading her work in Michael Radford's (Il Postino) film Dancing at
the Blue Iguana. www.ellynmaybe.com
(Sacred Beverage), Putting My 2 Cents In, Walking Barefoot in the Glassblowers Museum (Manic D
Press), Praha and the Poet and A Talk With Nature. She also has a CD, Ellyn Maybe Live. She has
read all over the country, including Bumbershoot, the Poetry Project, the New School, Taos Poetry
Circus, South by Southwest, Lollapalooza, Albuquerque Poetry Festival and Seattle Poetry Festival.
She has also read in Europe at the Bristol Poetry Festival, on the BBC, and in poetry slams and
readings in Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart. She opened the MTV Spoken Wurd Tour in Los
Angeles. In addition, she has also read at USC, UCLA, CSUN and Cal State Fullerton, among other
colleges. Writer's Digest named her one of ten poets to watch in the new millennium. Her work has
been included in many anthologies, including Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word
Revolution, Poetry Slam, Another City: Writing From Los Angeles, Poetry Nation, The Outlaw Bible of
American Poetry and American Poetry: The Next Generation. She was on the 1998 and 1999 Venice
Beach Slam teams. She was seen reading her work in Michael Radford's (Il Postino) film Dancing at
the Blue Iguana. www.ellynmaybe.com