Susannah Habecker © 2009 All Rights Reserved
Susannah Habecker © 2009 All Rights Reserved
warriors in training
one lightbulb under the back door
of Café de Andes is all we had
for light
after securing our foot pads
we pulled boxing gloves
over our hands with our teeth
we squared off between grease barrels
and the dumpster
rocking each other with hook kicks
spinning backfists and uppercuts
we didn’t need a score card or an audience
we were moving with the shadows of Benny Urquidez
Lee Siu Lung, Nai Khanom Tom, and Crazy Horse –
we traveled the primitive
corridors in our minds
where we’d find ourselves
clothed in emerald green feathers
and golden snake skins
where we’d walk into a cave
beneath the dripping roots of the world tree
to the slumbering Matses jaguar
we’d lean into her hot breath wanting her
to pounce and tear open our throats
we wanted her to thrash into our bodies
stripping and chewing the flesh
from our bones
***
Frida at Nacho Mama’s Open Mic Night
after a mural by Lane Cosner
Nacho Mama’s Taqueria, Cave Junction, OR
she is no longer in the hospital
where the stillborns were entangled
in the vines beside her bed
where her pelvic bone
and the machines of anguish
floated above her
where the metal brace pulled
open her body, exposing
a broken column
now, she says, her spine is a form of music –
the sound of a saxophone
she smiles and nods her head as a woman
and man sing Leather and Lace
the artist buys her another drink
then turns back to study the patio wall
he has painted her image in a landscape
of mesas and agave –
among Lophophora williamsii:
swollen, spineless, and segmented cacti
with tufted hairs
she touches the mural and white flowers
blossom
she licks salt from the edge of her glass
then sips a green margarita
her breasts flow heavily in her red blouse
there is an infant in the music
and a network of bones
moving the clouds
Michael Spring lives in O’Brien, Oregon. He is the author of two books of poetry: Blue Crow (2003) and Mudsong (2005). His poems have appeared in the Atlanta Review, Dublin Quarterly, and NEO. He is a martial arts instructor, natural builder, and a poetry editor for the Pedestal Magazine.