Poems I don't Like Anymore

Asphalt

If I fall, who will catch me other
than the ground? Asphalt loves as much
as any absent father, mother, brother.

Is the chemical breath any worse than
the fermented plant one? Silence
is silence. A bruise is a bruise. At least

asphalt doesn’t lie about its concern.

* * *

Dear Politician,

I work sixty hours in a light week,
pick up odd jobs whenever I can; my

wife does the same. Our clothes
are shredding at the cuffs and crotch

but that’s money we can’t afford
to spend. So we do the best we can

with scissors and thread. We don’t eat
out; we buy generic, even for the baby.

We sleep six hours on a good night
because there’s always more work to do.

My computer is a work computer. My phone
is the cheapest I could find. Vacations mean

go to the park for a couple hours. Don’t tell me

about the working class: you don’t
even know what those words mean.

* * *

Safe

1

Fat softens the fists,
keeps hungry eyes from looking
at what one won’t share

because someone some
where once said it wasn’t worth
the effort to keep

2

Someday someone will
covet that which I hold most
sacred and I’m not

allowed to shoot them.
Listen: no one knows to whom
tomorrow belongs.

* * *

Sand

I remember enough of what it is to be alive not
to want to sleep next to the sharp chemical

smell of plastic. The grease lines under
my fingers.The crinkle in answer to my murmured

sighs. It holds a shape, they say, which is a matter
of taste for some, I suppose. But I’d be forever

afraid of popping one like a balloon, or else feeling
the string slip through my fingers as it drifted

up and away. That, and the poison in your face
tell everyone who can see that you are made

for being on your knees. Mouth full, face
incapable of showing sorrow or joy.

-CL Bledsoe

Writing Update

Over the winter, I've written several screenplays which was fun. This week, I started a new Necro-Files novel, the third one. The second is under contract and forthcoming this year. Once I finish this one, I hope to finish a couple more novels before the spring, to meet my writing goals.

I've also been getting reading gigs. I've got five or six lined up by spring, several of them for festivals. I've also been sending work out to print mags, which is something I haven't done much, lately.

I'm going to close this out with a couple poems I've decided aren't worth sending out.