Rudy Springs a Leak

By Suzanne O’Connell

 

This morning I found a meatloaf in a basket.
When you look, there are always things to find.
The only time you can find a fraudulent ballot
for example, is when you look.
We have statisticians willing to testify
that there is a big coordinated Thing.
It lurks in every city.
It’s chained to the rack of your public library
in the ‘F’ section, ‘F’ for fraud.
It sits on your front porch next to the Ficus.
It’s taken over Silicon Valley and CNN.
It’s a scientific fact.
Even Tanzania has rules about inspectors.
Everyone knows the smell of rotten meat, right?
How did the meatloaf get in there?
It’s logical to ask.
Voters could have been dead,
or voted 30 times, or for Mickey Mouse.
An extraordinary number of brave,
patriotic Americans came forward to witness.
Extraordinary!
I don’t have time to read you their affidavits,
I need to grab some lunch.
And I seem to have sprung a leak.
I thought I was waterproof.
My suit is starting to feel greasy,
like prison stew.
My ducts might also be full
as my oil gauge is blinking.
Anyway, trust me, the pattern repeats itself.
It’s only logical.

 


Poet’s note: This is a found poem from Rudy Giuliani’s speech at the Four Seasons Landscaping Store.


Suzanne O’Connell’s recently published work can be found in North American Review, Poet Lore, Paterson Literary Review, The Summerset Review, Good Works Review and Pudding Magazine. O’Connell was awarded second place in the Poetry Super Highway poetry contest, 2019. She was nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. She received Honorable Mention in the Steve Kowit Poetry Prize, 2019. Her two poetry collections, A Prayer for Torn Stockings and What Luck, were published by Garden Oak Press.

Rudy Giuliani portrait and photograph by Dan Lacey, via a Creative Commons license. Purchase his art on Etsy.

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In Praise of Boredom

By Suzanne O’Connell

 

The past four years have been like
having a dad who sells all the furniture
while I sleep,
breaks the windows over the sink,
throws out my stuffed bunny and lava lamp,
then promises to take me to the Ferris wheel.
He’s so loveable,
until he isn’t.
Like when he shoves me, yelling.
“Don’t bother me, wash those tears off your face.”

Later he bought me the gold lamé purse
that had tiny cells, making it collapse
like a golden puddle in my hands.
It had a handkerchief inside, lace
around the edges, ‘Thursday’
embroidered in pink on the front.

Thursday is the day the nice grownup
took the other one’s place,
stood with his hand on the Bible,
said, “My whole soul is in this.”
The grownup man has never lied to me
or sold our furniture
or broken my toys.
Not even one time.

 


Suzanne O’Connell’s recently published work can be found in North American Review, Poet Lore, Paterson Literary Review, The Summerset Review, Good Works Review and Pudding Magazine. O’Connell was awarded second place in the Poetry Super Highway poetry contest, 2019. She was nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. She received Honorable Mention in the Steve Kowit Poetry Prize, 2019. Her two poetry collections, A Prayer for Torn Stockings and What Luck, were published by Garden Oak Press.

Photo by Agnieszka Kowalczyk on Unsplash .

Asphalt

By Suzanne O’Connell

Your arms waved for help.
The policeman bent down, hand on gun.
“No!” you shouted.
He fired.
The sound, an exploding beehive.
I looked at your fragile skull, resting
on the sharp leaves of fall.
Your eyelids blinked.

Helicopters circled, sirens came.
Your blood kept pooling.
It was the color of mine.
I saw the snow catch in your curly hair.

You had something in your hand,
a Black Cow caramel bar.
“It Lasts All Day,” the wrapper said.

 


Suzanne O’Connell is a poet and clinical social worker living in Los Angeles. Her recently published work can be found in Poet Lore, American Chordata, Alembic, Forge, Juked, Existere, and Crack the Spine. O’Connell was nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. Her first poetry collection, A Prayer for Torn Stockings, was published by Garden Oak Press in 2016. Visit Suzanne’s website.

Photo credit: Mycatkins via a Creative Commons license.