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Friday, April 06, 2018

STATE OF THE UNION: A DIALECTIC


by Karren LaLonde Alenier

with “IN BETWEEN” from Tender Buttons: Objects by Gertrude Stein




In between a place and candy
                                                crush
is a narrow footpath that
                                          ran to a sham self-clapping presi-
shows more mounting
                                     dent more shame
than anything, so much really that a
                                                            stormy
calling meaning a bolster measured
                                                           six inches
a whole thing with that.
                                       and could it be
A virgin a whole virgin is judged
                                                       ass not candy catcher
made and so between
                                    soft puta
curves and
                    hard cógeme duro
outlines and real
                           ITY
seasons and more
                              spies look-
out glasses and a perfectly
                                            candy-assed
unprecedented arrangement between old
                                                                   soldier
ladies and mild
                          wall-less
colds there is no satin
                                     sheet no
wood
         pecker
shining.


Karren LaLonde Alenier is author of seven collections of poetry, including Looking for Divine Transportation, winner of the 2002 Towson University Prize for Literature and her latest collection The Anima of Paul Bowles. Her poetry and fiction have been published in such magazines as Mississippi Review, Jewish Currents, and Poet Lore. Her opera Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On with composer William Banfield premiered by Encompass New Opera Theatre in New York City June 2005. For Scene4 Magazine she writes a monthly column about Gertrude Stein and the arts called “The Steiny Road to Operadom.”