Grandma's Friend in 1943 My grandma was picky choosing friends following her hunches 'til she chose a German spy. Her choices often went against the trends. This woman viewed the world through a camera lens and Grandma never thought to ask her why. My grandma was picky choosing friends. She, too, enjoyed the gulls and herons that filled the Hudson River sky. Her choices often went against the trends. Her new friend's interest in planes and subs portends, she thought, a writer's wartime instinct gone awry. My grandma was picky choosing friends while her husband complained that FDR pretends to know what's right to end the Nazi battle cry. Her choices often went against the trends. When the German spy was carted off in ankle irons Grandma was offended that she never waved good-bye. My grandma was picky choosing friends. Her choices often went against the trends.
Conversation between two old people contemplating their love and the future at the Dockside Restaurant in North Tonawanda I would be devastated if I lost you dear, he said and if some ill-begotten Never Event knocked you dead while you were still cooking up a storm ‒ no more quinoa, thanks most tasteless crap that God ever placed on this earth ‒ he said.* I would be devastated if I lost you dear, he said. No more quinoa, she said. I wish clear arteries for you ‒ your brain your heart more precious than the moon. I too would be pissed and sad if you passed on before me and by mistake. Note well, my dear, that C and D facilities bode ill. I would be devastated if I lost you dear he said. *most tasteless crap that God ever placed on this earth. ‒David Suckow Editor's Note: This is a Sweetelle, a form invented by Alison Joseph 10 lines, 14 syllables each line. Line 1 repeated in lines 5 and 10
Dear Professor Sestina Surely you are very wise. Generous with your rules so I can learn from you. To control strong emotions, you fasten your words edge-wise to lines that follow rules ‒ Writing poems that flow like water using rules you make of clay (not of granite), you challenge me to make my poems new and wise. You make wise rules to release a thorny story.
Martha Deed’s poetry collections, Climate Change (2014) and Under the Rock (2019) were both published by FootHills Publishing. Seven chapbooks, including 65 X 65 (smallchapbookproject, 2006) and We Should Have Seen This Coming (Locofo Chaps, 2017). Individual poems in Shampoo, Moria, Gypsy, CLWN, Earth’s Daughters, New Verse News and many others. Chasing Whitman, her research on her family’s connections with Walt Whitman is featured in Huntington Historical Society’s Whitman Bicentennial Exhibit catalog of the same title, 2019.
Grand Little Things 