“A Grand Concourse” © Mark Blickley

 

Mud
Babylon (2022)

Babylon blood rushing
My taste like kalamata olives sharp—
Tang under nails
Bend me jazz left
And sweet and
Burning.
Too-low
Candle snuff me
Smoke puffing into mist
Syllable cymbal symbol
                                                                Stomp
End-date to nothing
                Could I
Wear a red satin dress
Although I have
No rave no new sex (cocaine) to
Fluster and flutter
Wild stutter-stomped STOMP
Bridled and rumbled againstvibration
                Into mud.

 

Vivian Walman-Randall is a writer and scholar from Southern California. She holds an MFA from Emerson College and a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is currently pursuing her PhD at Oklahoma State University. Her work can be read in the Santa Barbara Literary Journal, Yellow Arrow Journal, and Apricity Magazine. Vivian currently lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma with her partner and their standard poodle, Clover.

Mark Blickley grew up within walking distance of New York’s Bronx Zoo. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, PEN American Center, and Veterans For Responsible Leadership. His latest book is the flash fiction collection, Hunger Pains (Buttonhook Press).