Three Poems, by Mark S. Sanders

think

wait Cinderella

don't slip on that shoe

glass is a red flag

it won't bear weight

but that's the idea

they're not for dancing

he doesn't need you

on your feet

sure he's charming

they always are

and he's rich enough

to know you're hungry

but your chores won't end

he needs an heir

you'll owe him everything

and he will collect

you'll see your stepsisters

eat their livers

but that meal won't last

they never do

and your stepmother

she can't live forever

rescue is no triumph

just expedient

it's up to you

you can take it or leave it

but a locksmith

might be a better choice

better yet, a hairpin

you've got the brains to run

but once you're in that castle

it's game over, baby

those guards do more

than keep people out

the biker mermaids

the biker mermaids are unconcerned

with their irreconcilable image

they feel no obligation

to divulge their talent

for negotiating their engines

without riding side-saddle

they wouldn’t think

of dividing themselves

into anything as common as legs

they remain contentedly unavailable

to child birth and bowel movements

inarguably, they have their mystique

no longer interested in unreliable sailors

or lonely beachcombers, regardless of their means

those freewheeling days

of breaching topless off the starboard bow

a reminiscence quaint as scrimshaw

and just as irretrievable

they have doffed their stifling ball gowns

and graciously returned their superfluous tiaras

last seen waving from the whistling docks

naked under their rumpled hair

gnashing slick, wriggling fish

snatched from the salty nets

they rumble out beyond the breakers

their laughter coarse as hungry gulls

they allow the moon

to sift their hair

with its cool, delicate fingers

and surface only to smoke

the poet

he’s a species of febrile savant

but devoid the utility of a human

calculator or the disquieting

aesthetic of a monosyllabic architect

but the acuity of his mania encroaches

on an equally estranged world

he's as indecorous as an outhouse in the parlor

yet is he tolerated for his rustic charm

not as charismatic as Franklin in a beaver hat

but he emanates a peculiar entertainment value

a portable bestiary for the immaculate soiree

though he is not here to entertain

his libido glistens on his near-human face

raw and pungent as a cleaved onion

fortunately, his intrinsic offensiveness is comical

so long as it is distant

like an ape at the zoo sniffing his fingers

after satisfying an itch in his anus

he's blameless as a dog and like the dog

worries endlessly over the bones of his profession

his pride, the homely twig or synthetic red ball

steeped in saliva and pond musk

that he earnestly lays at your feet

as if a tribute of his own creation

his exhilaration is to chase their brief trajectories

and bound back having rolled in the joy

of a strange animal's excrement

but he'll tire soon enough and resort to licking his own genitals

an artless trick of imitating humility

while plainly indulging the salty warmth of his perversion

strangely, he's incognizant of his homunculus stature

as if the foam from his jaws could explicate a universe

as if late from his bed he could elevate man

urinating from treetops

straining his priapism at an imperceptive moon

shrieking what he calls music

Bio

M. S. Sanders is a poet, performer, actor, artist, writer and graphic designer from Baltimore, Maryland. He has hosted and organized scores of literary and multimedia events and has been a featured poet at such venues as Artscape, The Martin Luther King Memorial Library, The Maryland Institute College of Art and the WHFS Festival at RFK Stadium. He has won two Baltimore's Best awards from the City Paper for his literary events and publications and garnered first prize in their 8th Annual Poetry Contest. In 2000, he was honored with an individual artist grant for poetry by the Maryland State Arts Council. Since December of 2009, he has been the host and organizer of the weekly featured poet /open mic literary event !SPEAK YOUR PIECE! and has been honored to present some of the most active and influential poets, authors, performers and lecturers that the area has to offer. http://www.speakyourpiece1.weebly.com