In an ongoing series, the editors, former contributors, and readers of Eclectica have been invited to write a poem containing four pre-chosen words. The words for this issue are kitchen, gunshy, variations and Neptune. Below are the resulting selected poems.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the four new words are wax, deadly, click, and parachute. Send your poem to editors@eclectica.org by March 1, 2002.

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Anomalous

The night after I'd started
to bleed in the bad place, Gramma
Sylvie left me her Bible splayed
open with our razor blade

Tara Brever

 

Rain-Swept Sunday

the gentler gods of the kitchen
under the yellow light
dancing stillborn on the well-worn floors
he turns, still fretful

Michelle Cameron

 

Three Word Poems

I'm in the kitchen reducing
vegetable growth to dinner. Next
comes the yearling lamb that bled out
to feed us

Taylor Graham

 

Neptune vs. the Man in the Moon

What if Neptune rose each night
like a moon? Imagine that
blue orb as it tries
to be a better lover

Amy Crane Johnson

 

Variations of Domestic

She's eyeing the kitchen again, waiting
for its next move

Julie King

 

In a White and Yellow Kitchen, a Window

the gunshy god
holds his trident in a stance
as though to set out
for the voluptuous woman

Patty Mooney

 

In the Garden

as if they couldn't read
the small portion of the world's misery
tattooed on my wrist

Ginny Wray