Poetry by Honorable Mention finalists Shevaun Brannigan, Coco Owen, and Kimberly Reyes

2 poems by Shevaun Brannigan

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In Response to Learning the Lego Line of Female Scientists was Limited Edition

On the line of female Legos that will continue to be produced: “In a sad and metaphorical twist, the male [Lego figurines] can drive cars, run, and hold tools. The female minidolls can’t move their hands. They can only sit, stand, or bend over.”—Avivah Winnerberg-Cox

 

Be a gracious girl. Thank them

for the thumb, dumb dumb.

 

I was a single niche market

as a child. Do you want to see

 

my single niche? I can

bend over. A knee,

 

a stove, a bed. Maybe

I would be better

 

at driving if I could

move my hands.

 

Women make bad drivers

in their wombs.

 

Do you want to make

a bad driver with me?

 

I can bend over.

Women are driven

 

places. Women are driven

by sex, that is, chauffeurs,

 

Lego makes a chauffeur

you can tell by the hat.

 

Anyone can be made a woman

by taking away their job,

 

that is, hat, and replacing it

with a ponytail. A woman

 

with a mustache is something

to laugh at. I’m pretty funny

 

until I bleach.

I can be a stand-up comedian

 

 

for Halloween, I just have to

put on a hat.

 

Do you want to come

see me perform?

 

I won’t tell jokes

about periods, that is,

 

punctuation, I’ve been told not to

and I’m not one to question Mark.

 

If I’m not a stand-up,

remember, I can bend over.

 

Sometimes I even have

breasts. Your hands can hold

 

tools, will you lay my pipe?

And my drain is clogged

 

in my pink kitchen, and I want

to stand in front of the sink,

 

they were nice enough

to give me shoes.

 

 

House

 

It was intrigue enough—

a cord hanging from the ceiling

only grandfather was tall

enough to pull and reveal

the attic steps. Even

as my girl-cousins and I giggled

our way up the stairs, crouching,

a sugar cube each

melting in our mouths,

I wanted to know the strength

of bringing down a ceiling

with one hand. But the attic,

sloping, unfinished, belonged to us,

on our hands and knees, crawling

from beam to exposed beam

to reach Grandmother’s dollhouse.

Bisected and tin, three stories

to lose ourselves in, we began

to place the props. We put the baby

in the pram, pushed him through

the kitchen and back again.

Left the mother in the box.

Passed out the plastic blocks

of twin beds and vanity,

distributed the child dolls around,

wound the grandfather clock.

Nothing outlasted

the ticking. My grandparents

have died, my cousins grown.

Each of them has their families

and homes. In a basement,

the dollhouse’s doors

stick shut. On my desk

rest two tiny chairs. A miniature pot.

Above me, the ceiling and

its cracks run through.

I cannot reach high enough

to rip this house in two.

 

Shevaun Brannigan is a graduate of the Bennington Writing Seminars, as well as The Jimenez-Porter Writers’ House at The University of Maryland. She has had poems appear in such journals as Best New Poets 2012, Lumina, Rhino, Court Green, and Free State Review. Her favorite poetry gig is the workshop she leads at her local Domestic Violence Shelter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 poems by Coco Owen

 

                               Whor led

 

 

Who se    are    you,    girl?    Who se    whor led

i mage,    who se    ho pe,    who se    pre text,

who se    m aid,    who se    p lay thing?

 

Who    put    t he    w ho rls    in    y our    inn ards

and    cochlea?    Who se    aph rod isiac    oyster,

fig,    pome granate,    or    o range    are    you?

 

Dear    m aid en—    H ow    long    t ill    you’re    h is

It    girl?    Is    it    a    whirl win d    ro man ce,

m ail-order    or    ar ran ged?    Girl,    you    are    a    naught y,

 

man y- chamber ed    nautil us,    and    who‘re    we

kid ding?    You   can   gr ow   up   to    be    any thing;

but    all ways    a    virg in al    thing     he’s    d reaming.

 

 

 

                                    Quiver

 

 

T his

la mentation’s

sor row full    dirge

is    th inking   reth inking

it self.    La mentation    h as    but

j us t    de art hs    f or    nourish men t,

f or    a    racist    nation    is    lamest

when    lite racy   de faults    into

 

…………….Weapons-grade    in come    inequality.

 

First    came    t he    arms    r ace,    then

there    we re    t he    war    s urges,

t he    orange    t error    alerts    &

the    scandalo us    state-security

obf us cation.   That’s    w he n

I    put    my    form erly    in-

war d    la men ts    out

of    t heir    misery,

anti militarily.

 

 

 

The Feminine Anemone, definition of—

 

 

—A marine organism which attaches to rocks. A Wallflower with petal- or tentacle-like appendages laden with poison: Ornament as armament.

 

—In the juvenile phase, often encounters violence and predation, c.f., the ‘She Asked For It,’ Jailbait or Cocktease anemones.

 

—The young anemone is called a Living-doll, or Nymph—short for Nymphomaniac—when it is feeding.

 

— Demonstrates a stick-to-it-iveness usually called Clingy.

 

—When damaged by passing boats, storms or divers, is said to suffer from Feminine Masochism, i.e., it is a Victim.

 

—Employs stinging nematocysts as self-protection when disturbed.  This feminine anemone behavior is called Hysterical or Bitchy.  (See also, Vagina dentata.)

 

—Can self-beget: its hundred Kali arms can regenerate if cut off.

 

—Of, or related to, Home-wreckers, Old Maids, Southern Belles, Sluts, Starlets and Goody-two-shoes. Also, Home-maker, Home-schooler, Angel in-the-house.

 

—May be found in the tide-bed she’s Stay-at-home to.

 

—May also be found in deep water. Is then referred to as Self-effacing, Depressed, or Passive-Aggressive.

 

—This coelenterate, though all-orifice, can be Frigid.

 

—Beguiling but deceitful, the feminine anemone has been called a “sea/Sweetheart, that Kleptomaniac.” (See “Lesbos” by Sylvia Plath. Italics added.)

 

—Also, often Beard for a clownfish.  (See also, Fag Hag.)

 

—The Eve anemone attracts poisonous sea snakes and is responsible for much destruction of reef ecosystems.

 

—Persistent Co-dependent devotion to a given rock or clod shows a Submissiveness typical of the Persephone anemone (a style of Girl still in Vogue).

 

—As a juvenile, the Madonna anemone is ‘Like a virgin’ and revered.

 

—After sexual maturity, the Madonna anemone is referred to as Loose Woman, or simply, Whore.

 

—When it remains attached to one rocky bed, the feminine anemone is known as the Honest Woman, Fixèd Foot, or Ball-and-Chain.

 

—When the feminine anemone moves (however slowly) between attachment sites, it is called a Promiscuous Bitch.

 

—The feminine anemone’s flower-like appearance disguises the fact that it is a predator. Therefore, anemones are sometimes referred to as Black Widows, Ball-busters or Man-killers in the literature.

 

—When the anemone gesticulates with its tentacles, it is called Women’s Libber. However, the gesture may also signify a distressed organism (Cf., the Stevie Smith “not waving but drowning” anemone.)

 

—A high incidence of eating disorders may reflect the feast-or-famine conditions in which anemones exist. Anemones without adequate nutrition are anorexic or Karen Carpenters (slang).

 

—Where feminine anemones congregate, the habitat is called a Nunnery, the type of place the suicidal Ophelia anemone got off to.

 

—At the end of the life-cycle, the anemone is called Old Hag, Cow, or Shrew, i.e., she is no longer a Nice Piece of Ass and is of no further interest.

 

 

Coco Owen is a stay-at-home poet in Los Angeles. She has published poems in the Antioch Review, 1913,The Journal, Rio Grande Review, Cirque and CutBank, among other venues. She has an M.A. in comparative literature and Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Owen serves on the board of the independent, feminist publisher, Les Figues Press, in Los Angeles, and more of her work can be found at:www.cocoowenphd.com.

 

 

 

3 poems by Kimberly Reyes

 

 

 

Kimberly Reyes is a second-generation NYer living in California and has written for the Associated Press, Entertainment Weekly, Time.com, The New York Post, The Village Voice, Alternative Press, ESPN the Magazine, Jane, Honey, NY1 News andThe Best American Poetry blog. She received an M.A. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2013. After that she was a post-graduate journalism fellow at the Poetry Foundation, a Callaloo fellow and is currently a William Dickey Fellow at San Francisco State University where she’s an M.F.A. candidate in poetry.