Christina Rau

The Man Who Lives In The Attic

must be a mime.
He doesn't make a sound.
Instead he turns on the light,
turns off the light,
turns on the light again.

must withstand extreme temperature:
stifling summer behind a broken exhaust,
thin, pink insulation not protecting from winter.

must love muffled sounds
from below, one floor, two -
muted folk rock, dulled metal,
accidental jazz on a music channel
left on well into the night
when the wine set in.

must remember the scent of pinot grigio
how a nose fits below the rim of a glass
its crisp chill its soothing of muscles from
inside out. must smile at the thought



Off Key
There is no music like this without real grief - Louise Gluck's Orfeo

You rattled the harmony with motorcycle
grunts, open, full-throttle.
You cut brown powder with ice
tea mix, corrupting the childlike
bells in the jingle.
Yet you escaped, somehow,
from the junkies you tied up,
from the junkie blues yourself.
I, foolish, thought you
a never-ending opus,
accelerando, allegro,
legato, staccato, legato,
largo, lamentoso,
allegro, allegro, allegro,
bel canto,
con fuoco, con amore,
con passione.
You wandered mindlessly
instead
into one short crescendo
into echoing quiet
in the vast cavernous hall
broken only by
that little girl's short cry.



A Classic Love Poem

Involves hearts,
Longing from afar,
Eyes, lips and skin
Compared to
Bright things, lush things, and smooth, creamy things.

Entails faulty wooing,
Lines that failed, flowers that died,
Naked attempts that simply did not work.

Buries itself in an anthology,
Inks onto onion skin,
Hides in a journal to be

Used at a wedding,
Read at a funeral,
Opened during a courtship,
Taught at a lecture
In a classroom
As an example of what
Or what not to do.

Accompanies doilies in
Leather-bound lace.
Lands anonymously in mailboxes
Scented in vanilla bean fragrance.

Sealed with sticky pink lip gloss,
Dressed in stickers and red wax

In metered lines,
In rhyme,
In form,
In a book,
in ink.


Christina M. Rau is a professor of English at Nassau Community College and the founder of Poets In Nassau, a reading circuit on Long Island, NY. Her poetry most recently appeared in Dark Sky Magazine and River Poets Journal , and she is the guest co-editor of the forthcoming 2011 Long Island Sounds Anthology. She loves moonbeams, puppies, and of course, sarcasm.
 

Current Issue:
June 2011

Holly Day
Karen Kelsay
Don Kloss
Kayla McAuliffe
MaryAnn McCarra-Fitzpatrick
donnarkevic
Carson Nunnally
Sam Piccone
Christina Rau
Bill Roberts
Lucille Shulklapper
Jason Sturner

Home