{"id":6043,"date":"2019-05-09T22:51:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T22:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=6043"},"modified":"2019-05-10T13:32:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T13:32:50","slug":"two-poems-michael-montlack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=6043","title":{"rendered":"TWO POEMS & THREE PHOTOS – MICHAEL MONTLACK"},"content":{"rendered":"

IN TAMIKA’S BASEMENT<\/strong>
\n 
\nSorta stoned from the spray paint fumes.
\n 
\n* TWISTED FUCKEN SISTER *<\/em>
\n 
\nAlternating black and hot-pink letters
\nscrawled across the white cotton sheet
\nlifted from her mother\u2019s linen closet.
\n 
\nWe\u2019re not gonna take it,<\/em> Tamika sang,
\nrattling both paint cans like maracas.
\nIf I can\u2019t hang it from the balcony,<\/em>
\nI\u2019ll wear it as a cape. Rush the stage!<\/em>
\n 
\nMy 14-year-old Superwoman. Unafraid:
\nID-checking bouncers, mosh-pit metalheads,
\nher mother. What\u2019re you gonna tell her?<\/em>
\n 
\nI\u2019m sleeping over your house\u2014duh!<\/em>
\n <\/em>
\nAn all-access pass. To my bedroom.
\nThe demure boy. (A twisted<\/em> sister?)
\nAs her accomplice I bubbled
\nlike the second coat of hot pink.
\n 
\nShivering in shorts, she kissed me
\nG\u2019night<\/em> beneath the corner streetlight,
\nmy shadow spilling into hers\u2014our odd shape
\na tattoo on the asphalt where I imagined
\nthe skid marks we\u2019d one day leave.
\n <\/p>\n

\n

 
\nSUMMER’S EVE (90’S GIRL BAND, NYC) <\/strong>
\n 
\nWho could\u2019ve guessed a girl clumsy as a blind giraffe
\non roller skates\u2014the meatiest of the varsity softball team\u2014
\nwould one day summon, jangling a scuffed tambourine,
\nthe gaggle of tattooed groupies, their mangy backpacks
\nstuffed with sanitary napkins for sticking to their bare chests
\nwhen you finally sang their request: Maxi, Maxi, Maxi Pad<\/em> \u2026
\nsplattering Pollock-style all those open-mouthed boys
\nwith a douche spritz\u2014the girl who gave suburbia the slip
\nnow pounding her dusty footprints into the floorboards
\nwhere Blondie and The Ramones lashed out their own bitter arias.
\n 
\nTamika,
\nwhat would you have carried in your garter had you seen 30?
\nYour stash? A stiletto? Bells to warn us when you were coming?
\n 
\nCBGB\u2019s is gone now too, your old stomping ground
\na John Varvatos boutique. Yeah, men\u2019s high fashion\u2014
\nwhere your shabby boys once came to be baptized.
\n 
\n 
\n\"\"Michael Montlack is editor of the Lambda Finalist essay anthology My Diva<\/em> (University of Wisconsin Press) and author of the poetry collection Cool Limbo<\/em> (NYQ Books). Recently his work appeared in North American Review, The Offing, Hotel Amerika, Poet Lore<\/em>, and Los Angeles Review<\/em>. His essays have appeared in Huffington Post and Advocate.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IN TAMIKA’S BASEMENT   Sorta stoned from the spray paint fumes.   * TWISTED FUCKEN SISTER *   Alternating black and hot-pink letters scrawled across the white cotton sheet lifted from her mother\u2019s linen closet.   We\u2019re not gonna take it, Tamika sang, rattling both paint cans like maracas. If I can\u2019t hang it from [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6043"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6088,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043\/revisions\/6088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}