secret meanings of letters
(appeared in Serving_Suggestion)

A   is for school that took you by sanction
B   is for the girl next door who destroyed your courage
H   is for the hero who let you down
15   is for the unspoiled future and a permanent crease
36   designates your meandering thoughts

A   is the advance of feverish urge
Blue   is not for sky or sea or momentary cringes
Reruns   are for apathetic chewing
C   is another letter undiscovered
She   is for the very reason we talk
She   is for all the lost words
She   is for the words we search for
She   is speechless and divine

A   is for a dress no hand could alter
B   is for the survival of your beauty
Tension   is for my misdiagnosed worries
Order   is for a rage never explored
Birds   are for background noise and interference
She   is what words could mean
She   is a dress of skin
She   is a warm whisper in the night

A   is for the predictability of common events
B   is for the advocates of chaos
Blueprints   are not schematics for the soul
Ashtray   is for the relentlessness of soap opera
Morning   is for a chef in the kitchen
She   is for all the uneasy silence
She   is black coffee and crumbs on the pillow
She   is a distant star
She   is a quarter embedded in road tar
She   is a 60-second eternity
She   is for the words we have retained

 

Slipstream reviews with
michael baskinski

• Number 20. 2000
• Number 21. 2001

     Dan Sicoli (Niagara Falls, N.Y.), a past Pushcart Prize nominee, is co-founder and co-editor of Slipstream Magazine & Press, founded in 1980. His poetry has appeared in numerous litmags, e-zines, anthologies, and audio poetics cassette tapes including Chiron Review, All Shook Up: Collected Poems About Elvis, Main Street Rag, Bathtub Gin, The Butcher's Block, Nerve Cowboy, Thunder Sandwich, Iodine, 12th Panet, Monkey's Fist, Zero City, Jackhammer Lobotomy, and Alpha Beat Soup. E-mail: slipdan@aol.com

other online publications:

Disquieting Muses:
• http://www.disquietingmuses.com/May00/sicoli1.html
• http://www.disquietingmuses.com/May00/sicoli2.html
Thunder Sandwich:
• http://www.thundersandwich.com/ts12/sicoli.html
Stirring
Bulkhead
Naked Poetry
Erosha

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