The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Thu 3/26/2009)

[RetroLounge]

Letters From a Lover From Another Planet

Here, we listen with our tongues, mouths always
open. When his tongue searches the damp
cellar of my throat, he recalls
stories I've forgotten, recites the name
of every lover that's ever kissed
the inside of my armpits. He knows
what I want and what I don't
like about the way he reads the history
of my hair as if each strand
were a declarative sentence.
He tells me I'm too eager to please.
You must learn to take, to say "give me"
graciously. He likes what's inside--
not soul, or metaphysical heart but the real
blood-chugging organ: its russet
muscularity; the way it blooms
bright as an anthurium beneath the white
trellis of ribs; its allegretto beat. The sweeping
of blood through ventricles is sexier
than breasts, he declares as he places his tongue
on my wrist, tells me to pay attention
to the vignettes of legs, the backsides
of knees, for each cell holds a story.
Open your mouth, he says. Leak
the letters of your name into my lungs,
the milkweed smell of your skeleton,
the bloodroot of you.

Simone Muench

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Simone Muench was raised in Louisiana and Arkansas and now lives in Chicago, IL. She is the author of The Air Lost in Breathing (Marianne Moore Prize for Poetry; Helicon Nine, 2000), Lampblack & Ash (Kathryn A. Morton Prize for Poetry; Sarabande, 2005), and Orange Crush (Sarabande, 2010). Her latest chapbooks are Orange Girl (dancing girl press, 2007) and Sonoluminescence written with Bill Allegrezza (Dusie Press, 2007). She also works collaboratively with Philip Jenks, writing a book of epistolary poems titled Little Visceral Carnival. She is a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, the 49th Parallel Award for Poetry, the PSA's Fine Lines Contest, the Charles Goodnow Award, the AWP Intro Journals Project Award, the Poetry Center's 9th Annual Juried Reading Award, the Frederick Stern Award for Teaching, and the PSA's Bright Lights/Big Verse Contest. She received her Ph.D from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is director of the Writing Program at Lewis University where she teaches creative writing and film studies. Currently, she serves on the advisory board for Switchback Books and UniVerse: A United Nations of Poetry, and is an editor for Sharkforum.


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:hi:

RL

[blueraven95]

1. ...

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

6. ...

:hi:

RL

[Chorophyll]

2. Weirdly hot.

And nicely written too.

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

7. Yup...

:hi:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. My dear Retro!

Very visual, and interesting...

Thanks!

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

8. ...

:hi:

RL

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. very nicely done

:donut: :hi:

[RetroLounge]

9. Yeah, she's good...

:hi:

RL

[BlueIris]

5. Nice. nt

[RetroLounge]

10. ...

:hi:

RL