well meaning neckties (by Alicia Young)

well meaning neckties

he loved me perfectly

more completely

in one night

than all the others

with their combined efforts

overblown eight ball romances
egos
ivy league educations
wallets
fun house cocks
poorly tailored psychology
wearing cowboy boots
on a summer night in detroit
front men screaming at their drummers
and the sight of me walking away

over the decades of my
failed overtures
at making a life

all gods
whose constellations
have been burned from my sky

they’re all my favorite divorce

but not him
no, certainly not

he makes me regret all the lesser men
for whom i’ve bought
well meaning neckties




* * * * *

Alicia Young is a poet, teacher, mother, middling pianist, and above average drunk. She has the tongue of a harpy and is rumored to be a bit of a tramp. She is a modern day Southern belle, born on Kentucky’s bourbon trail, who enjoys black coffee in the morning and a fine cigar at night. Her Electra complex is the stuff of legend.  She makes a hobby of causing sailors to blush.  Ms. Young is the author of Hell on Heels, poems by Alicia Young, released in 2012 by Lady-Lazarus Press.

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for john (by Alicia Young)

 



for john

he sits back all kerouac
with the holy city rising behind him
he is
the embodiment
of everything a lesser poet ever wanted to say
but wasn’t brave enough to write
he is
my america
he is
the way a man should wear a hat
he is
beautiful




* * * * *

Alicia Young is a poet, teacher, mother, middling pianist, and above average drunk. She has the tongue of a harpy and is rumored to be a bit of a tramp. She is a modern day Southern belle, born on Kentucky’s bourbon trail, who enjoys black coffee in the morning and a fine cigar at night. Her Electra complex is the stuff of legend.  She makes a hobby of causing sailors to blush.  Ms. Young is the author of Hell on Heels, poems by Alicia Young, released in 2012 by Lady-Lazarus Press.

home from the war (by Alicia Young)

home from the war

i went out with my friends
all dolled up
in my high class call girl best
the night after we broke up

he was tall blonde beautiful and stupid
5 years younger than me

a marine

home from the war

on leave
the groom of his wedding party

we got bleedin’ drunk on 5th street
and stumbled back to the millennium hotel
buying condoms along the way

it was the place
you and i
had first met
and said goodbye
that sickening july

perfectly evil indeed
america’s favorite white meat

and i fucked him
i fucked him so hard

to spite you
to eat the world

to reclaim me

to kill anything of us
still holy



* * * * *

Alicia Young is a poet, teacher, mother, middling pianist, and above average drunk. She has the tongue of a harpy and is rumored to be a bit of a tramp. She is a modern day Southern belle, born on Kentucky’s bourbon trail, who enjoys black coffee in the morning and a fine cigar at night. Her Electra complex is the stuff of legend.  She makes a hobby of causing sailors to blush.  Ms. Young is the author of Hell on Heels, poems by Alicia Young, released in 2012 by Lady-Lazarus Press.

circle jerk (by Alicia Young)

circle jerk

i can’t possibly drink enough
to keep up
with the absurdity
of this back lit world

the splendor of soft-serve hypocrisy

we’re broadcasting live from rome as it burns

shut-ins
psychopaths
and dime store prophets
all writing self help books
from their padded cells

hoping to market them online
to other poor bastards
who can’t get off their couches



* * * * *

Alicia Young is a poet, teacher, mother, middling pianist, and above average drunk. She has the tongue of a harpy and is rumored to be a bit of a tramp. She is a modern day Southern belle, born on Kentucky’s bourbon trail, who enjoys black coffee in the morning and a fine cigar at night. Her Electra complex is the stuff of legend.  She makes a hobby of causing sailors to blush.  Ms. Young is the author of Hell on Heels, poems by Alicia Young, released in 2012 by Lady-Lazarus Press.

a darker blue (by Alicia Young)

 



a darker blue

when my sons were tiny
standing at my side
each set of wee arms
wrapped around my pant legs
it was so easy to cover their faces
with my hands
turning their twin blonde heads in toward
my widened hip love and apron

to keep them from seeing
bloody clashes
crashes
and the cruelty of this life

but now they are tall and free
so much bigger than me
and my hands cannot reach far enough
to hold the innocence in their eyes




* * * * *

Alicia Young is a poet, teacher, mother, middling pianist, and above average drunk. She has the tongue of a harpy and is rumored to be a bit of a tramp. She is a modern day Southern belle, born on Kentucky’s bourbon trail, who enjoys black coffee in the morning and a fine cigar at night. Her Electra complex is the stuff of legend.  She makes a hobby of causing sailors to blush.  Ms. Young is the author of Hell on Heels, poems by Alicia Young, released in 2012 by Lady-Lazarus Press.

barefoot in tremont (by Alicia Young)

barefoot in tremont


to be completely embraced by a city

full immersion within inimitable culture

sweet cleveland improper

bloody forms of honesty spraying from arteries covering complicit poets

forgetting we are strangers before the whiskey runs dry

artists willing to live one more night

our laughter shattering the gaslights
of dead writer heaven
into stars

to know the feel of the sidewalk

as he falls in love
with what the sight of cherry blossoms
do to your eyes

this is to feel poetry

this is what it is to be

barefoot in tremont



* * * * *

Alicia Young is a poet, teacher, mother, middling pianist, and above average drunk. She has the tongue of a harpy and is rumored to be a bit of a tramp. She is a modern day Southern belle, born on Kentucky’s bourbon trail, who enjoys black coffee in the morning and a fine cigar at night. Her Electra complex is the stuff of legend.  She makes a hobby of causing sailors to blush.  Ms. Young is the author of Hell on Heels, poems by Alicia Young, released in 2012 by Lady-Lazarus Press.