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Last Day of the Viaduct / Linda Waterfall Is Dead

Molly Tenenbaum Poetry

They always said they’d take it down
                  hometown girl
going into the tunnel
                  a smile like the chapel performance space
give it gas on the curve hurtling out 
                  is that her real name
a road foaming as dust
                  yes it is her real name
streaming rain pale blue light
                  you won’t know which lines
on the upper level west to the water
                  will be the chorus
the sunset and wheel
                  hummed when the concert is over
the lading cranes like orange mantises
                  how with some you read by hand position
on the lower level under concrete tons
                  the chord they’re playing
earthquake threat of trucks overhead
                  but her hand with insect precision her hand in a brushing of leaves
whooshing windows open
                  choosing only the notes she needed
have you ever fallen asleep on it
                  can you even imagine no ulterior
have you been declared unsafe
                  only music and love
have you planned to drive around it
                  singing a cadenza
days they were inspecting it
                  and fingering a counterpoint cadenza
did it smile in its flight
                  on the frets
it held me between earth and sky
                  as if it were simple to smile
those were my treadmarks high on the barrier
                  think of the neighbors be quiet as you leave
I made them as dark as I could
                  the headlights out of the concert lot
and how many times has it been the quick way
                  turning downhill toward the lake
or the slow way to where you were going

 

           

About Molly Tenenbaum
Molly Tenenbaum’s books include Mytheria , The Cupboard Artist, Now, By a Thread, and the artist book/chapbook collaboration with artist Ellen Zeigler, Exercises to Free the Tongue. Molly’s banjo recordings are Instead of a Pony and Goose & Gander. She teaches at North Seattle College and Dusty Strings Music School. Find her at www.mollytenenbaum.com.

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her fingers from the south,
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer leaving New York alone at night has failed.

Poetry David Ellis Dickerson
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There is that much shadow in her, that much dusk of an open earth.

Poetry W.E. Pasquini
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