Four Poems by Cindy Lynn Brown

By Cindy Lynn Brown

 

Harmless

 

Just a remark

casually through the room under neon lights

nothing to hang on to for several minutes

a person completely unknown to me with freedom of speech

to mention my breasts, my cleavage

as if they were my business card

 

a cloudburst lasts no more than a couple of months

then we collapse our umbrellas

seek refuge, hide our faces

I can forgive when you yell at your parents

and when you steal sugar in the shop

it is more difficult when you throw stones at the ducks

I appoint you as my booth, my penance

I have more important ways to spend my willpower

you pronounce things on my behalf

you do it casually and eloquently

 

 

If the girls

 

if the girls are not allowed to be wild it creates
frustration that in all likelihood can be perceived
as inexpedient we allow them
to lick the batter spatula in spite of the eggs in the batter
if you get in the way
of a baboon it will smack you in the face
in the smaller towns the baboons enter people’s houses and empty
the fridge the girls’ day is ruined if they are not allowed to climb
we too have to climb despite our fear
of heights and airplanes and tunnels we are born that way to climb
with fingers and toes entangled we are born
to buy magnets that can be stuck unto the fridge

 

 

.                          INSTRUCTIONS

.                         ˑwomen mustn’t sweat when they are parallel parking ˑmen mustn’t have cute e-mail addressesˑ women mustn’t wear neck wallets or drink Baileys with their coffee ˑmen and women mustn’t be better at wrapping presents or  act as world travelers if they’ve only ever been to Egypt ˑmen mustn’t brag about money ˑa woman mustn’t be bashful and she mustn’t choose a light summer salad over meet  ˑwomen mustn’t be petty when it’s time to pay the billˑ men mustn’t master the art of playing recorder or speak aloud of their headache  ˑwomen mustn’t leave the ladies room if there are visible traces of urination on the trousers (use the hand  dryer) ˑ women mustn’t be sparing of  compliments or correct complete strangers  ˑwomen mustn’t begin to cry if they stumble or walk into the mirror  ˑmen mustn’t panic and activate blinks or windshield wipers when the car grounds to a haltˑ

 

 

WIKIPEDIA

 

in Bosnia they write about executions,  massacres and war

 

here in Denmark

under recent changes

 

desultory comments on listed buildings in the municipality of Svendborg
on suspension bridges, short story writers

and things that ought to exist

 

a ship is sailing to China at fifteen kilometers per hour

it might take a while to get there

 

Norwegian translations of the bible

and bases for sending off space rockets

 

my oracle

searching  softly in history in the shower

 

a photo appears on the page on breast cancer

an older persons breast during mammography

it is marked as vandalism and immediately replaced

with a photo of a young woman’s breast

 .
categorize me

find me

outside your window in your comment field

 

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Cindy Lynn Brown was born in 1973 in Aarhus, Denmark. She holds a Mag. Art degree in literature and creative writing from University of Southern Denmark, and has had three collections of poetry and a novel published in Danish. Her latest book-length work is, Mute, published by Spring Publications in 2013. She is the winner of the 2013 agricultural-cultural foundations literary award, and organizer of the annual international poetry festival in Odense, Denmark. Her work has also been published in various magazines and anthologies in Denmark, France and Croatia.