LA Poet Society is a literary organization dedicated to the community, to make the literary arts inclusive, accessible, and visibile!
A non-profit literary community organization serving Los Angeles county & beyond
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Where Poetry Lives
since 2009
Joshua Tree
(a pantoum)
Glass bottle shards
on the desert floor at night
are stars, the moon above:
our hands, cupped and empty.
On the desert floor at night
we sit, back to back,
our hands, cupped and empty
hold only firelight.
We sit, back to back
telling stories in the dark tent,
hold only firelight
in the beams of our flashlights.
Telling stories in the dark tent,
glass bottle shards
in the beams of our flashlight
are stars, the moon above.
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(c)2016
Alex Martin...
Poet and Poet Teacher from Los Angeles​
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Alex Martin grew up in the Los Angeles area and currently lives in Monrovia, CA. She received her BA in Religious Studies from Stanford University and her MFA in Poetry at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
In addition to writing poems, training with California Poets in the Schools, teaching writing and grief workshops for the Motherless Daughters San Gabriel Valley chapter, and working at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Pomona, she hikes, attempts yoga, drinks copious amounts of coffee, and searches for the peacocks that roam wild near the LA Arboretum.
Alex has had poems published in Presence and Listen (publications of Spiritual Directors International) as well as Pirene’s Fountain (Glass Lyre Press), Selfish Zine, Peel Pages, and others.
These
These breasts are new, flat and firm
and too small to fill even the thin lace bra into which they lean, eager
and with hope.
These ones are heavy and very tired.
These ones are proud, pillowing boldly over a cup
of stiff black lace.
These are modest, preferring sports bras, sundresses.
These breasts swing free beneath a cotton t-shirt
and perk their tips out to celebrate the brace of another morning.
These breasts want a man’s rough tug.
These ones want a woman’s knowing lips.
These breasts are full of silicone and smile at you stiffly
across a great and perfect divide.
These breasts are temples that have been restored.
These breasts are glad to be here.
These ones miss children that no longer hug them
or burrow tear-streaked noses in their folds.
One divides its milk between the mouth
of a child who is hers, and that of one who isn’t.
One breast misses her twin
and wonders if she should shrink down
or stand up taller,
and what honor is.
Those breasts are the ones I miss most.
That breast is the one that wore a purple tumor
like a corsage, like a rose.
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Previously published by Selfish Magazine
www.girlsgetselfish.com
(c)2015