Poet: Dena Rash Guzman, Sandy, OR
Smalldoggies Poetry Feature #20: Dena Rash Guzman, Sandy, OR
poems excerpted from the manuscript Bitches in History
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From the Desk of Phoebe Caulfield
RE: Holden
He may or may not have been known as Lenny Bruce for a short period of time, but regardless, he was always the private sort and would not want me to respond in detail to the inquiries about his well being and what became of him.
Thanks for understanding.
Phoebe W. Caulfield, Esq.
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Cohen's Marianne
a fragment of a bildungsroman
I was young. I had loss and I was young and
what if you'd not been so patient as to smile
as I danced and drank like a Greek, what if
you had not smiled and taken me home?
I wanted you for myself.
You flew with other birds,
I curled up on the floor.
"Don't believe a word I've said. Don't believe a
word I've said."
I wanted you for myself.
We tried, a gift.
"What is the distance between laughing and weeping?"
Yes, I left when you said you were curious
but I have always known that you are brave.
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A Wife
In the chapel,
I exposed my neck
to the Man,
vowed that I would.
Years later, I served Thanksgiving dinner
early and raw, turkey carved and on skewers,
yelled over the TV,
“I dug a pit in the backyard. Go light a fire
and pretend you’re Middle Eastern.”
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Zelda Fitzgerald
I’m stumbling, god damned loaded,
sweet Lord of Bathtub Gin, I’m
drowning up the staircase. I'm loaded at this door,
which you're not behind.
heaping down the
spinning wall, a warble
in the hall, a broken heel
Empty wallet, liquored gullet -
let me sleep, without heaving,
at the threshold, evening
bag as pillow. I'm removing
my dress to use as a blanket
before tripping naked to tinkle in the soil
of the potted tree under
the window through which
I wonder what yonder light
beneath you twinkle.
Come home.
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Dena Rash Guzman is a Vegas born writer living on a farm outside Portland, Oregon. Her first book of short stories is due by Shanghai's independent press, Haliterature, in 2012. She is the editor and founder of Portland based literary journal Unshod Quills. More of her work can be found in various journals and anthologies on print and on the internet, as well as on stage in Shanghai, where her first play, "Shanghai Cigarettes," was produced in 2011 by the Shanghai Repertory Theater. She is currently constructing her author's website. Until then, more of her work can be found here.
Dena Rash Guzman was a feature reader at the Smalldoggies Reading Series PDX013 Anniversary Show.