A Tacoma Poma
I’ve been meaning to contribute to this site for a while.
I’ve also been meaning to do something with a series of Tacoma poems I put together a while ago.
So now the two come together in a bit of serendipitydoodah.
So here’s a bit of something-or-other. It’s actually three poems about fairies (!) in this holy city.
The King of the Fairies
takes the shape of a seagull
by day and floats in and out of the fog.
His domain stretches
from the landfill on Center
to the buckets of squid on the Ruston Way pier.
At night he returns
to his man-shaped self
in a three-button, blue/black gabardine suit
and a gray silk tie
that once was a waiter
who worked the weekend shift at The Spar.
The stable employment
of a government job
gives him the moxie to do as he pleases.
He’s never transformed
a man to an ass,
but asses abound, just the same.
*I Met the Queen *
of the fairies climbing
through the bushes below Broadway.
She was naked,
except for a triangle
mouth overflowing with blackberries.
The juice drew crooked
lines on her paper-
white skin. Her right hand clutched an empty
Heidelberg bottle.
Her left twirled
a black strand of hair. You look better
in my imagination,
I said. You should see
me in my own, she replied.
She noticed me, blushed,
and origamied into
a blue heron and swallowed me whole.
I spent three days
in her gullet, singing
and repenting for my forgetfulness.
of the holy city
has pawned his bells at Hilltop Loans.
I need a change
in my employment,
he told me over a raisin scone.
I said I knew
of an open position
then begged the ticket and reclaimed
his tinkling, clickering, two-tone hat
that cost me my job
and changed me my name.
Posted By: Tom
art | | Apr 06, 2006
