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New
haiga by Charles Christian

Two poems by Karen Kelsay

by Charles
Christian on Sat 18 Oct 2008 07:23 PM BST  |  Permanent
Link  |  Cosmos

I
Believe

Mrs. Allen, why did you tell
us
second-graders that our
guardian
angels wouldn’t follow us
into
a liquor store? I spent
hours

wondering how to get
M&M’s
from the corner market,
where Baileys
and Smirnoff bottles
loomed
like Satanic
shadows
over the register.

Huddled with my
friend
on the curb, we could
see
the candy close to the door
–

Of course one
earthquake,
and we’d be on our
own.

My father scoffed at
religion –
we let him go in for
us.

~ ~ ~ ~
~

Perfume

Your name was almost
forgotten,
smudged from my memory –
until
yesterday, when I overheard
some women
saying they liked you, and
you were still
available. Funny, thirty
minutes later, I saw
you waiting there, as if you
knew I was coming.
Certainly, with all those
women pressing
around you, I found myself
growing more attentive.
What would they say if they
knew that long ago
you were once mine? That I
tossed you away?
Your body looks more
attractive that ever.
I let you touch my wrist,
just once more, before
I leave. Then, slowly, I
remember what it was
about you that I hated: that
clingy
overpowering way of yours;
how you
nauseated me by the end of
each day –
You, horrid
perfume.

* Karen Kelsay grew up in
Southern California, and loves writing poetry about the sea. At the same time, she has
written narrative, romantic, and fairy-theme poems that were created with
other backgrounds and foreign lands in mind. Her first book – Collected
Poems by Karen Kelsay – was published in June
2008, and a chapbook titled A Fist
of Roots is
scheduled to be published by Puddinghouse Press later this year.

Keywords:
prose,
poetry

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