Lines

1

Weight falls like miles beneath our tires.
Rest is a day that hasn't come,

though we mark it each month, hoping.
Lines form around our eyes as though

they were once much larger, and the sun
has shrunk them and condensed their contents.

2

Noise fills the eyes as well
as the ears, stretching from our door—

a snake's belly rubbing
the linoleum-covered concrete of the grocery

store, the carpet at work, worn by lines
of shoes, all stamping out

an oroboros, their eyes on its scales, each

painted with advertisements for
healthcare none of us can afford.

3

Eating out is a good way to say I love you
more
when there's someone else at whom to stare.

Let someone younger earn the tip
by keeping the glasses of our evenings filled

so we can sip away the time until bed

while we keep the air full of the noise
of our minds winding down.

4

Fall into the flour smelling bosom of maturity.
Skin pale, doughy. Vanilla. Hair blonding.

The nipped fingers of youth harden, shrink
like uneaten fruit. Cells die. The ones

that remain spread like splayed toes
to fill the space.


(Originally in, I believe, Press 1)

http://www.troubadour21.com/series/clbledsoe/the-idealists-part-v/

"I May Be a Bear" is going to be reprinted in Press 1's anthology THE RED ROOM. "Texas" was anthologized by Mud Luscious press in FIRST YEAR.

http://www.cmich.edu/chsbs/x23565.xml#CL Bledsoe

"Magpies" and "Loud Neighbors."

Also, it's not really funny...

Working Titles for Quentin Tarantino Films


City on Fire 2
Mutilating Cops to the Oldies
Lake Bears
Pond Kitties
Reservoir Dogs

Vinnie Barbarino’s Dance Party
Seriously, I’m Not Winona Ryder; I'm Uma Thurman!
Pulp Fiction

Positive African American Female Role Model
Coffee Crotch Rot
Jackie Brown

Hurt Bert
Carve Marve
Maim Seamus
Assfuck Chuck
Kill Phil
Kill Jill
Kill Neil
Kill Bill

Caper Journal took "The Wayback Machine," a new poem of mine. I've been playing footsie with them for a while. Also keep coming close with Leveler--they actually took a poem, but it was a simultaneous, so I withdrew it and haven't been able to hit again.

http://www.troubadour21.com/series/clbledsoe/the-idealists-part-iv/

The new issue of the Arkansas Review apparently has an interview I conducted with poet and activist Ed Madden and a review of ANTHEM. I haven't even seen the issue yet. One of the editors sent me a quote from the review: “With its hip, straightforward, unorganized, and unique sense of style, Bledsoe’s Anthem is a brilliant, but humble, collection of poetry that reflects a long awaited shift in Southern poetry.”

Unfortunately, I don't even know who the reviewer is...

"Fire and Rain" is up at The 2nd Hand.
http://www.the2ndhand.com/web69/fireandrain.html

A poem, "Crow or Car Tire," accepted by Leaf Garden Press.

Hamilton Stone Review accepted "Old Gray Mare," an essay about a car of mine that burned in the parking lot of a Wal Mart in West Memphis on New Year's a few years ago.