Memory of Sound
Puma Perl, August 2009
Her breasts talked only to each other
Ignoring him completely
The tattoo above his heart
Screamed another woman’s name
A long thin scar across her cheek
Whispered words of unrepentant love
His body begged her body to come home
She did not remember how to hear
He handed her his best black shirt
It whimpered as she slipped it on
He listened to the murmur of the trees
They laughed at him and spoke in French
The door could not decide if it would slam
Heels clicked and clacked against the stairs
Shoot at the sun
Puma Perl, August 2009
Poems emerged from the night
If angels were kind
they would turn off the stars
and our big hearts
might sleep in darkness
Light penetrates the calm
of my midnight room
Vega radiates his heat
Capella’s kids jump
and chatter
I am the sentry,
allowing rebel poems
safe passage, sanctuary
for words who have lost
their way under luminous
skies
Morning wears boots
and leather, shakes
loose yesterday’s dreams,
reeks of old tobacco
Poems escape
at first light of day
Armed and dangerous,
they shoot at the sun,
laughing as it withers
and burns
Puma Perl is a poet and fiction writer who believes strongly in the transformative power of the creative arts. Her work has been published in cause & effect, MadSwirl, Trespass ,Red Fez, Gloom Cupboard, Toronto Quarterly, The Oak Bend Review, and many other print and on-line publications. Her work has been published in several anthologies, including The Mom Egg and In Love. Her first chapbook, Belinda and Her Friends, was recently published by Erbacce Press. She performs her work in many venues, in and out of New York City. Upcoming features include Stain Bar, Cornelia Café , and the Riverwood Poetry Festival, Middleton CT – Outlaw Night. She lives and writes on the Lower East Side.
