February 9-15, 2004: Joel L. Young and Kate Salvino

Joel L Young and Kate Salvino

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Bio (auto)

Joel L. Young is an author of several books of poems (Synergebooks.com) from Middleburg, Florida. A columnist with a eclectic tastes in politics, sports, music, and history His first trade book American Lyricon: A Poet Sings of America won best poetry EPPIE in 2003
Visit Joel on the web here.

The following work is Copyright © 2004, and owned by Joel L. Young and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.

Watching Carnivals I’m an old timer and a child at heart watching dwarves play with tarot cards passing the time in a romantic interlude with all passersby of women and men, strange magicians with dancing sticks turn tents of wonder into marionette shows to play for mass crowds who stare stone faced at 3D cardboard cutouts of a crowd sitting in laughter, staring back at them I sit there on my steel chair listening to the barker tell his tales The bearded lady and the clairvoyant kiss with their make up on, charming in their coupling as man and wife while clowns serenade play violins with no sound Conjoined sisters dance and hum to the silent symphony in their minds smiling with the glow of a firefly’s delight I sit at the wonder and look for reason feel envious to join the party A freak to my own heart; I hustle to catch the tie me downs breaking from a tent pound it back down into the ground with the might of a thin man; unfold chairs for the faith healer to come ease the torment in my mind I sit and hope, wish to be released from my cage as the man with the aluminum soul who can be manipulated with a single touch to reveal the empathy of all things Only the mime knows the true me she’s never said a word yet we talk in our dreams ride ferris wheels under the sea and have made love beneath the willows where Eden’s garden follows the river beyond purgatory’s gate The night leaves me restless I cannot sleep for I watch the carnival and the evil and goodness of all souls. I Am the Corn I am the corn drifting in the wind Crossed in the crow’s eye being consumed alive by trials of fire I have seen man lonely bearing his resemblance in a scarecrow’s soul holding his babes in the ancestors’ cradle I have been tasted by the gods of the Maya been ground into grain and baked in the ovens of the immortal star I am the corn the blood of the lamb the grape in the wine man without envy historian of the milky way

Kate Salvino
KBSalvino@aol.com

A Few Days Later They told me I stole her car, bit her hand and took the keys- That my punch missed, but spit like rotting egg had stung her face that I called my dealer, then dad I had said “goodbye, I love you,” They said I went to Rite-Aid, barefoot and bleeding, I stole men’s sandals bought beer, two bottles of Tylenol some Sominex and gum, all while bleeding They told me some man saw me vomit in a parked car, windows rolled up, undigested pills rolling off my tongue like Pez from a dispener my head hanging on the steering wheel- an empty piñata They told me I was belligerent eyes rolling to white, vitals failing, cocaine running my veins like fierce angry rapids They told me my liver was failing and to grow the fuck up. Stiffed You hampered me like a stiff dick in baggy pants in public My coffee that morning tasted like heroin and sin I wished for someone to remove me– turn out the lights! Do something with this erection! I’m a woman for crissakes!