person Charlotte Hamrick, three poems

Charlotte Hamrick lives in New Orleans with her husband and a menagerie of rescued pets. Her poetry and prose has been published in numerous online and print journals, most recently in Muddy River Poetry Review, Flash Frontier, The Rumpus, and Literary Orphans. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and a finalist for the 15th Glass Woman Prize.

~

Sun and Stone

Kick against the sun,
the great generator,
its spangles and chains.

Belly into dusk.
The silence.
The still air.
The curve of trance.

Let your shadow shimmy
over the floor
of the deep end.
Mysterious.
Cool.

Like Jimi plucking steel strings
with his teeth and spitting out
stones.

~

Somnolent

In the waning afternoon
a body settles into
its burrow of bone
and fat as married
as life and air.
In a shallow space just below
the surface
lazy-lidded eyes skim the world
and dust motes fly
in slanted light.

~

Lonely Magnificent

Cold food:
Salmon, partridge, pheasant
almost anything in aspic

Hot Food:
Guards of honor (rack of lamb)
always lobster
Crocembuche

Before I read books I read menus
Order and eat, nothing else

Perfection might buy love
Champagne and smoked salmon
Dried hibiscus blossoms
enhance the moment

Eye for the crown but
the gullotine’s in sight,
giver and taker away
Learn to be silent,
craft an exit strategy

Joyous creature,
all artists are lonely

~

author’s note, Lonely Magnificent: Found poem source: “Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent” (http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2017/10/24/anthony-bourdain-presents-cnn-films-jeremiah-tower-trailer-11-12-17.cnn) on Parts Unknown, an homage to America’s first celebrity chef. The text of the poem quotes from the documentary with minor changes.

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