PoetryRepairShop 03.12:135
return to contents, this issue


Barnes & Noble.com

Mexico sale:
4-night trips
from $406
  


DYAN SANDEFER
In the Beginning

In the beginning,
it used to help.
Taking scalding showers,
her makeshift method
of burning away the dross,
a type of refiner's fire,
symbolically returning
her to purity.

It used to help,
pretending she could sacrifice
her body and reserve her soul,
like holding mineral rights
on a piece of property.

In the end,
everything clicked
when she looked down
and saw the gun in her hand,
the blood washing
onto a pure white floor.

He looked so much like the old man
who had touched her first
as a fresh young girl of six,
staining her forever.

And she knew.
The cleansing was to no avail.
She was dirty to the marrow,
she would never be clean.

Her life ended
with one final click, washed
in the blood of her hopelessness. 
copyright DYAN SANDEFER
Poets
Parts
MAIL

03.12

133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
return to contents, this issue page 135 TOP MID page 135 page 135 PARC
PoetryRepairShop 03.12:135
return to contents, this issue


Barnes & Noble.com

Save up to $300
includes on-board coupons
with Carnival
  


ANDREA FORBING-MAGLIONE
How to write a college entry essay

(and other things you should know)


When writing your college essay, remember these few tips: They care not what you learned- but what you've DONE. As you consider where to apply, make sure that you send away to all the places that your mother wished she had gone, so that she can live vicariously through you… Talk about how you were student body president, and how you volunteered at all of the PTA's craft shows Mention that you played in the Orchestra, the Symphonic Band & Girls' Choir and sat in on the Jazz Band when the baritone sax guy was sick Don't forget about the National Honor Society or the time you went on a bottle drive to pay for band camp & got bit by a dog. Tell them about the four years you worked props on the school play (although you really wanted to be out on the stage) While you're at it, you could tell 'em what a team player you are-- be sure to include all the sports that you played… Tell them how Todd Windham took your virginity under the bleachers the night of the homecoming dance your sophomore year. I suppose they'd enjoy hearing about how they nominated you for homecoming queen with the “smelly guy” from homeroom as king, just cuz they thought it was funny. You may as well mention the salutatorian from the year before who blew his brains out in your friends' bathroom and your true love that died a week before your senior prom. Last but not least, don't forget to tell them about all the things you aspire to do after you abort the fatherless child in your womb. Make your Ms. America speech about how you plan to save the world and then when you're finished . . . Don't forget your conclusion! any well-constructed essay needs its concluding paragraph. Mrs. Smith would turn in her English-teacher grave if you forgot your conclusion!
copyright ANDREA FORBING-MAGLIONE
Poets
Parts
MAIL

03.12

133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
return to contents, this issue page 135 TOP MID page 135 page 135 PARC
link to PoetryRepairShop

SudanHome Banner Exchange
Route 66 - Mother Road
Route 66
... Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com
from HIDDEN HOLIDAYS

walls whitewashed with care
these anxious women wait then
go next into showers so clean
after a long filthy ride
through exotic countrysides

where shall we go afterward
to a dinner with fine wine
then perhaps to cinema
            
            -JH