Jennifer Poteet
My Mother Wanted a Daughter So Much
She took off her silver earrings first,
and pierced the silicone cup of her diaphragm
with an earring post,
and stood, naked in the bedroom.
She skipped the spermicide, too,
while she waited for my father.
He didn’t want more children.
There were two already
from his first marriage.
What if my father had stopped to look
at that little lanced disk,
dormant most of the time
in a pink silk pouch
on the bottom shelf of the linen closet?
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Blog – http://redwheelbarrowpoets.org
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/RWBPoets
Twitter – @RWBPoets
Month: January 2020
RWB Workshop Poem of the Week—Jan 21, 2020
Out of Tune
Tierra Sherlock
Whenever you came over,
you bee-lined for the guitar at the foot of my bed.
I tried to learn to play when I was younger.
I spent hours sliding my fingers across the steel strings
and pressing down so hard that they bled.
We laughed at how small my beginner guitar looked when you cradled it.
You said the quality was shit,
but you still reached for the pick you always carried in your wallet.
I watched how easily your fingers found the frets,
how you could feel for the right notes even with your eyes closed.
The strings never made a deep impression on your skin,
your fingers never bled.
The guitar hasn’t been tuned
since you stopped coming over.
I was never as good as you at letting the calluses form.
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Blog – http://redwheelbarrowpoets.org
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/RWBPoets
Twitter – @RWBPoets
GV—Red Wheelbarrow Poets—January 31
RED WHEELBARROW POETS ROCKING GAINVILLE CAFÉ ON JAN. 31
The Magic Circle series returns to GainVille Café Friday, January 31, 2020, for an exciting double feature of Red Wheelbarrow Poets. FRANK RUBINO will be the featured poet, and ARTHUR RUSSELL, who has featured before at GainVille, will return, as featured musician!
Frank, one of the managing editors of The Red Wheelbarrow and a member of the RWP writing workshop, has been published in such magazines as DMQ Review and Caliban.
Arthur has performed with his guitar several times at GainVille and at the Red Wheelbarrow anthology launch at the Meadowlands Museum.
Also featuring the rest of the RED WHEELBARROW POETS in the long-running BRING YOUR A GAME open mic.
A $9 cover (hardship? See me and I will get you in!) includes coffee/tea and dessert.
7 PM, GainVille Café
17 Ames Avenue
Rutherford. 201-507-1800.
RWB Workshop Poem of the Week—Jan 7, 2020
Paul Leibow
Death’s been good
Death has been good to my neighbors.
I watched as they pulled their new Jag,
it’s gleaming black lacquer skin, out of the drive.
I notice the chill in the winter’s sun,
a thaw off the rear defrost
clearing horizontal slats on the back window.
They own the funeral home on Main Street
where I went to pay my respects to Sophia’s relatives.
The police managed the lines around the block:
they form that way when they die young.
Breast cancer took her at forty-one.
I remember the first time Stacy, her beautiful sister,
introduced us on Palisades Avenue.
Sophia looked stunning.
I never fully understood why I felt that way.
I remember working with her in the art department
at Zip-Five books.
I felt awkward when she was passed over for a position offered to me,
the art director’s job I didn’t deserve nor take.
Life can be cruel that way.
I was hoping she might have been offered the position after I left.
I don’t think that happens when your boss is sexist.
I recall the time she came over with her husband.
We all were shocked after her daughter fell and bit her lip.
Sophia was casual, holding the blood-drenched napkin
on her daughter’s mouth as she stopped the crying.
Death already very confusing. Is more so when premature.
I never properly processed what happened.
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Blog – http://redwheelbarrowpoets.org
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/RWBPoets
Twitter – @RWBPoets
The Red Wheelbarrow Poets 
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