Greetings. I became a trial member yesterday and am sharing a few pieces by way of introduction. Poetry and creative non-fiction tend to be what I write, but I aspire to mixed genre work, actually. Thanks for reading, and many thanks for any responses about the poems.

- Melissa

***
Would Bob Dillon Care?

Would Bob Dillon care that a redhead sings his lyrics while strumming an acoustic guitar, accompanied by a dulcimer and banjo?
Would he care that she is young and wears a dress of flowers?
Would he care that she feels the sense of the song?

What happened to Bob Dillon who sang political songs and now sings for iPod?
Is his an inevitable end? Does celebrity spend a son like that?

Would Bob Dillon care that we sit here mesmerized by her fingers, pale and strumming?

I suppose,
probably not.

***
Hope in May

mallards
pruned fruit trees
evergreen sapling
marks the septic tank corner

many trees she says to me
yeah my silent divergence
slim trunks planted
after murders of forests

a man fishes the Grand
underneath a bridge
facing north
shaded by concrete

puddles spot fields
freshly tilled
I wish I walked the land
before leaving

but I will go upon return
where hope buds green

***

Definitions of Gudgeon

1.a small freshwater fish used as bait

Stepfather battered smelt once a year,
and served them whole, bones and guts crunched
on Idyl Crest Drive in Ingham County, landlocked,
no lake-effect snow reaching our lawn,
our sandbox far from dunes
lapped by freshwater.

I am from the Great Lakes state
but not raised on swimmers captured
with or without licenses,
so scales did not line our kitchen sink
or stink up our backyard along the shed
where abandoned vegetables rotted.


2.a credulous person

Incredible how credulous I have been
like gullible guppies minding their own biz
in a dank creek soaked by spring.
But how does naivety get sacrificed?
Playful pricks rip spawning salmon,
nets snag fins for industry,
these irreverent sticks dip riverbeds.
So, I trust the innocent, not well-cast lines.


3.a dupe

A dupe smudges fudge across dungeon walls
as Gideon and Simeon bludgeon earthworms,
indifferent smashed bodies that once tilled the soil
not for humanity but just functioning
in their scheme, except for when used for bait.


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Apologies for placing work in the wrong location! If needed, please remove.