Valentine’s Day Massacre Presents: Susan Deer Cloud

And Susan Deer Cloud closes out Valentine’s Day Massacre week at Oddball Magazine. Love triumphed over Massacre amongst poets! Who knew??? Thanks to all for reading.

Brings Red Roses

Not just any roses but half a dozen
close to wilt thrusting them into her lap

after clattering up ancient steps to where
she has stretched out lynx-like in cave study

on phone with Cayuga poet friend
just moved to Missoula Montana

and she back in Catskill hometown
Capricorn man surprising

Libra woman with six vivid blushes
of impracticality bought from Peck’s Grocery

Wow you brought me store roses
she marvels up at M.I.T. Geek God

her Indian name for him
feeling a bit like the first time

an admirer gave her hothouse roses
only at 63 can’t recall who was so hot for her

Don’t get too excited Capricorn old goat brags
Look at the price She looks 99 cents

plus 2 stickers on cellophane around stems
Reduced Produce Freedom

After he clomps off proudly she sniffs
his version of romance while poetry man

teases about calling her in the middle
of the nights when he still lived in Rochester

Can’t call you the way I used to when you only
had your cat Wu Wei Men don’t like it you know

Cat she remembers Best relationship I ever had
Wu Wei and I flowed together we never argued

February thaw sun glows feline-gold in window
Roses smell like liberated potatoes

Bitter Coffee Indian Blues

They say some women like their coffee with the sweet,
They say some women like their coffee with the sweet,
This woman savors coffee without sugar or cream.

You all know the women who want a man cooled down,
You all know women who favor a man tamed down,
A man lukewarm as that only makes this woman frown.

I have a man hot and bitter as black coffee,
I love a man deep and bitter as black coffee,
Both day and night his darkness beautiful burns in me.

Indian woman sees the stars where the black is,
Indian woman finds the stars where the black is,
Tell me, Blues, what is that strange shining of his?

Slow me down, Blues, can’t you make me like some women?
Can’t you make me be a sugar-lovin’ woman?
Blues, why did this poet ever let that wild man in?

Susan Deer Cloud is a Catskill Mountain Indian. An alumna of Binghamton University and Goddard College, she has received a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, New York State Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowships, and an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant. Her most recent book is Fox Mountain from FootHills Publishing. Her new collection, Hunger Moon, is forthcoming.

Allison Goldin is an artist living in Cambridge. Her work is a collection of spontaneous drawings from the imagination. The most common link throughout her art are the semi-recognizable creatures scattered amongst and bringing together the surrounding doodles. She is currently studying Illustration at The School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.