Small Song

Small Song
copyright @aladreth antoinette brown


"No medicine in the world can do thee good." - Shakespeare

We love our tragedy,
our shots of bourbon,
distance and madness.

So, here's your mirror,
stones,
here's your adulteress,
nun, and us;
cathedraling,
bewitching, snarky, scrappy,
knotting, museuming,
foraging on cherished victories


our odds are
slim, baby, slim,
slim to nothing,
knee high
to oceans throwing
over our backs,
begging a Thou Art coming
of age,
packages of resolutions
in a tiny jam jar.


Level the angles,
level the house plants,
Damn, let me respond!
I called him, "sweetie,"
when I meant something else.


I've had to pesticide
My prayers (I MOUTH)
as dapper as they may be,
the weight of sod on my wall -
spray on it,
funeral it,
exist in it,
that tiny jam jar
of destiny.

Heaven's Ball

picture 2012 copyright, @aladreth

Heaven's Ball 
copyright @aladreth antoinette brown

"Women need a man to get over another man" - TEXT received
"I write and write and you never respond. Get your shit together" - TEXT received

Sunflower Sister,
Colorado River Daughter
woke up in a
strange bed
with a new tattoo
riding hot to her skin
in a fire landscape,

no little sleeping
in the desert
she's ripe to sacrifice

ruined in death
and lovely prisons
the wind winds around
            ... around

she's come back
praying at the Madonna
sucking on your fame

God love you and your name

you've come back
folded free and easy
ripped canvas kissing
shouting, playing, binging
and when I touch,
vibrate, fly, paisley bandana boy, fly

your face is all i see
at the moment of drop
                 box felony
sing your heart into the sea
we got old in between

now we bird watch,
yes, and cut (it) out
calendar pictures
for Alzheimer's patients

i calculated 2000 would never come,
then 2020... and certainly - when i'd
be _____ (fill in age)
never would come
... never

now who cares - after the
end of world party
at the wine cellar bar
where our gourmet pizza will be
delivered from the cafe
across the street

yes, it'll be Heaven's Ball

In Front of These Books

In Front of These Books
@aladreth antoinette brown



"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet..." - Shakespeare

in front of these books
i feel quite wrong,
so very much in need
of help

in front of these books
woe is me,
slight
and undone,
i wonder (vulgar)
i wander
far off

in front of these books
phantom's thunder
savage schizophrenia,
paranoia -
horns in my eyes


in front of these books
full of disease and defect
my proverb of genital scanner pics
are sick,
even sicker than you think


in front of these books
how tacky every one of me
sits in
alcohol, roulette wheel,
fishing pond,
omelettes, and pet goats


in front of these books
in some dowdy
highway landscaped
in plastic 64 ounce drink cups
i'm hoot-owling
goodnights to all potential fucks


in front of these books
i am so wrong