Sample Poems by DeAnn Jordan
Alec
blood can be pretty...that lets you in lets you in lets you in --Tori Amos
I was nine when he first came to me, a friend's father, pushing my face into the pillow, his grip on my nape--a dragon's clutch--the pillow smelled of smoke and dust and old man and bad cologne; it was spotted from age and I thought I could disappear into the threads, the stains--his body pressing down and pressing down and pressing in, into my back, his breath hot on my neck, my face, tongue in my ear that swirled the lobe, a lick, a taste, as he cut my arm with a four-inch blade, a hunting knife he used for gutting fish--I was a prize, a trophy, slick little fish, he fingered my entrails and gutted me quick, and as I nearly went blank, and as the shriek in my head, in my head nearly burst out of my mouth-- don't cry, don't make a fucking sound--over my shoulder I saw the leather-black wings shadow the whole world, and the scream clawed its way out, through the walls of that dank room, through the night of the world--a baby demon being born.
Spaces
There's a hole in my spine,
centered, precise,
bored out by fretting
that wind will lift you--
carve you into stone--
Utah arch of red bone.
In spaces wider
for birthing
than the bowl
of my cupped hands
I will keep you safe
from claw and fang,
blister heat and bullet rain.
You will not be thrown
in dust devils
to canyon walls
like a baby
bird, like hollow
bone--brown mouse
from owl's mouth.
Even while we sleep
the sidewinder curls,
preys on small creatures.
Butcher Block
I broke the cookie jar shaped like a clown. So my mother put my hand on the
butcher block. This will teach you to play with things that aren't yours.
She raised the spiked meat tenderizer above her head, like a blacksmith at
his anvil. But just then, my hand, wet with the blood of meat on the block,
became an eagle--wings pumping air--picking at her eyes, tearing out her hair
with its claws and as she screamed the eagle and I flew away through the window,
my arm shedding feathers, a bit of bloody hair in each talon.
Ordering Information: Bookstores and Individuals