Berkeley, CA
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I Dream of Circus Characters: A Berkeley Chronicle
2010
Beatitude Press, Berkeley, California.
ISBN: 9780982506684
92 pages, 5.5" x 8.5", perfect-bound, paperback
$14.95
Cover art by Betty Bishop.
Order directly from Judy Wells at jwellspoet@yahoo.com
THE MATISSE T-SHIRT
After Matisse’s Icarus, from Jazz, Paris, 1947
I saw it in a catalogue
advertising chic artistic
things to wear—
a Matisse Jazz t-shirt
100% cotton in true
Matisse blue
Icarus falling soundlessly
through space
so said the ad—
But when I pulled it
from its package
and over my chest
all I could hear were
sounds—
gunfire, brilliant shattered
stars of yellow
One direct hit—
The red dot on Icarus’ heart
His black body falling
` a crucifix
through Matisse’s true blue
jazz sky
and the sounds were so loud
I knew
I could not wear this image
blazed on my chest
Not here in Oakland
Not here in Berkeley
Not here in Richmond
where gunfire rings out
in the night
cross-fire at dawn
and Black Icarus
lies in a pool of
brilliant red
day
after day
after day
Copyright 2015 by Judy Wells.
GIRL AT THE BEANERY CAFÉ, COLLEGE AVE.
She sits with her
grandmother, perhaps,
clenching a vanilla smoothie.
She has Alice-in-Wonderland
tresses around her face
which she twists and turns
with the emotions
of a story her
grandmother, perhaps,
is reading to her
from a thick tome.
The girl’s eyes register concern,
alarm, anxiety,
and I wonder
from my seat next to her
what, on heaven’s earth,
is grandmother reading
in that soft relentless tone?
She does not look up
at Alice’s face
(for I have now named her Alice)
nor does she seem to notice
that Alice is squirming
and clenching her locks.
What can she be reading,
this sturdy grandma
with short grey hair
and Ben Franklin glasses?
I want to ask.
I want to peer over her
shoulder and see whether
it’s Harry Potter
or perhaps The Tell-Tale Heart
by Edgar Allan Poe
but I don’t.
No matter.
I am witnessing the power
of literature, the power
of storytelling, the power
of grandmas over little girls
and I wonder
Who will Alice be
when she grows up?
A Ph.D. in lit,
a poet,
or a patient on a therapist’s couch
talking about the times
her grandma, perhaps,
tortured her
in a coffee shop
in Berkeley.
Copyright 2015 by Judy Wells.
SUPERMARKET LOVE
Last week at Whole Foods
as I was reaching
into the refrigerated shelves
for the coldest tofu
with the most future
expiration date
a yellow gloved hand
from the other side
laid itself on mine.
I nearly jumped a mile.
"Oh sorry!" said a woman's voice
from the other side.
A man behind me laughed.
This week as I walked by
the same tofu
section
I heard a disembodied voice
from the other side say,
"I needed you,
and you have never
been there
for me once."
“Yes, I have,”
I wanted to protest.
"Last week!”
Copyright 2015 by Judy Wells.
Copyright 2015 Judy Wells Poet. All rights reserved.
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