Return to the Gumball Poetry home page return to the October 1999

Melissa Favara - 2 poems

Frank & Billie

When we return from Florida in April there are toads in the living room,
the gleaming trails of the slugs' single feet on the window panes. Frank keeps
his books in the icehouse, is out until two in the morning in the yard talking
with rabbits. In the mornings we pray. This year the bay thaws in three-
quarter time, I take off my glasses in the deck chair at night & the few lights
of Linwood hover & merge, I can hear the car ferry crossing to Caseville &
the third voice our two voices chanting makes.




Holland & Sheridan

My grandmother shrinks to a crease
& clatter of teeth, cold
linoleum. We've stopped fixing
those windows, geraniums gone
to seed, her husband settled to barstool
& spun there to ether, the dining room
lights out, a potted watchchain in the sill
near a white plastic icon of
the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fireplace bricked
shut, no moon, in my mouth
a kind of seed.



Melissa Favara lives in Portland, Oregon where she publishes Teen Sleuth, a highly poetic zine. She has been previously published in h2so4 and Columbia Poetry Review.
Email Melissa Favara at teensleuth@gumballpoetry.com.


Click here to review this poem
Want to see what reviews look like? Click here
Like this poem? Send this link to a friend

Post a review of this poem.


12.30.99
Virginia Ryan (virginia.ryan@adidasus.com) from Portland, Oregon

Rabbits are Bad - Frank & Billie
Dear Miss Favara;
I am a representative of a group called H.A.R.E. , Hate A Rabbit Evokation. Our group tries to educate the public that rabbit references in literature, art, and film are undesirable in the extreme. Far from their cleverly honed public image as cute, silent, harmless animals, egg-gifting, carrot -nibbling cuties, rabbits are in fact fearsome, tusked and armored beasts that roam the midwestern plains in search of toddlers to eat. Your poem's assertion that you should talk to them represents a public health and safety hazard. However, I find that I still liked the poem, once I had excised the word "rabbit" with liquid paper. Unfortunately, I can barely see anything on my monitor these days. Oh, this will be displayed? Rabbits.

Return to the Gumball Poetry home page return to the October 1999
About
Submit
Back Issues
Poetry Workshop
Find a machine
Current Issue




©1999-2001 Gumball Poetry.
No part may be reproduced without
the written permission of Gumball Poetry.
all poems © their respective authors.