Claiming a city. Collecting signs.
I am back to say goodbye.
Tidyland
Laundromat.
Associated Thrift:
Yesterday's Best.
"Jan"-tiques. Owner Jan Gardner.
A trip to the past with a touch of class.
Blood pressure 126 over 90.
72nd and Dodge. Heritage Village.
New Lady Fitness. Suburban Bridals.
From Here to Maternity.
NW Radial Hwy in Benson.
Omaha Lace Laundry. A fashion cleaner.
Musette Bar. Grampy's Odds & Ends.
All proceeds go to Uta Hallee Home for Girls.
Tip Top Thrift Shop.
Jim's Seek & Save.
Enter Through Alley. Buy an antique
that evokes a favorite memory
of a special person in your life
or a happy occasion from your childhood.
My mother sat on the gossip bench
talking to Aunt Honey on the rotary dial.
I walked past,
rubbing sleep out of my eye.
Thinking I was sad, my mother
pulled me onto her lap to comfort me.
Because I didn't want her to stop,
I pretended to cry.
Animal Ark Shelter.
Return to Willoughby.
Please come browse,
I know you will find
that perfect memory
to take home.
WHAT MY EX USED
Promises
A vacant bedroom
Former roommate
Who taught him
Everything he knows
In bed
AIDS test
A single rose
Note in my mailbox
Please move in
His own
Personals
My fear
Of being outed
Green Tupperware
Itemized bill
WHAT I USED
A poem about plums
My sister
And her husband
Graduate school
Mean streak
A broken glass
Willa Cather
Bicycle
Sun tanning
His grandfather's pajamas
Cooking lessons
Monte Carlo
Broyhill Fountain
Lee's Chicken
His birthday
My fists
HOROSCOPES
For Michael Radelich
In the gift shop of the museum
you dismissed yours.
"Self-doubt? Don't have any."
Three years ago I drove
through the sand hills
to an interview
for a job I didn't want
and startled a trio of birds
from the barren asphalt.
They already knew more than I did--
the arc of their rising
the same as your hand lifting,
blue sun flooding my car--
you, caught between jobs,
me, starting a new one,
neither knowing what's next
When I was out of work,
I missed, even, complaining about my job--
then the stoplight changes
and I turn the wheel to the left.
Your hand makes it to my shoulder
and you say
"Don't worry. There'll be new things
to be bitter about."
BERYL THE BEAR
The first time Beryl lied to me,
I told my boss.
She said,
Try
To understand
her.
The next times Beryl lied to me,
I told my boss.
She said,
Try
To ignore
Her.
The last time Beryl lied to me,
I told my boss.
She said,
I agree
With
Beryl.
James Cihlar's work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The James White Review, Water~Stone Review, Bloom, Briar Cliff Review, and online at Sunspinner and Kaleidowhirl. She's won a Minnesota State Arts Board grant in Poetry and been a finalist for the Gertrude Press Chapbook Award and the Blue Light Press Book Award. Cihlar has a first collection of poems titled Undoing, forthcoming from Little Pear Press in 2008. Her work is included in the Little Pear Press anthology, Regrets Only (http://littlepearpress.com).
