It's just poetry, it won't bite

Two by Carol Smallwood


07.27.12 Posted in today's words by

Carol Smallwood co-edited (Molly Peacock, foreword) Women on Poetry: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing by Successful Women Poets (McFarland 2012); Compartments: Poems on Nature, Femininity and Other Realms (Anaphora Literary Press 2011) was nominated for the Pushcart. Women Writing on Family: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing (Key Publishing House 2012) is her most recent book. Her sixth anthology for the American Library Association, Bringing Arts into the Library, is forthcoming. Her magazine credits include The Writer’s Chronicle and English Journal.

Two by Carol Smallwood

A Prufrock Measurement

I’m a connoisseur–how long drinks keep cold
and how much they may drip down sides:
an expert of how much ice they’ll hold.
Wendy’s red, white, gold, cups abide
with the redheaded girl taking one in stride.

McDonald’s cups have the word thirst,
and a running Ronald tossing cups in trash.
I’m not sure where the golden arches appeared first
but they’ve surely multiplied, dispersed
widely around the world without much abash.

Subway’s cups have arrows on the first and last letters of Subway; images of ice one presumes
is to carry one far away from despairing places
where women talk of Michelangelo with bored faces
and other topics one dares not to assume.

Lunch at Wendy’s

In July, chemo ended:
Wendy’s napkins
folded the same–
but I’d been rearranged



One Response to “Two by Carol Smallwood”

  1. Oh, this caught me off guard. Heartfelt!

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