No, but
what’s floating inside these couplets
and what you know the cold wants
start with a sign unknown
ghost in the machine moving through
the long perse of doubt and
what’s clicking between your ears
what could be the lone one liner
and what the dream thinks
the din of crackers in your mouth
cod liver oil laced with laughing gas
live oak its long arms snaking through you
dizzy sparrow’s heartbeat in your palm
what your privacy screen unhinges
skronky experiment of calcium nodes
what on earth, wind, and fire are you doing
Saturday night ruckus on any bourbon street
ceiling fan twirling in your spoon
the curdling of your luck
your body parts table rapping
scratch tracks on X-ray emoji
your counterpoint upholsters silence
plasticized corridor of your making
another windblown dawn
and your job—to get you home
Session
The psychologist’s dogs wear diapers
as they parade around the office like Slinkys,
one Shih Tzu to offset incontinence
one Pomeranian to sanction equity.
Outside off-key notes bristle treeshadows,
wingshadows, rattletrap recipe from twilight,
upside down sky in my teacup, a few geese
bark across its span, crows perch around its rim.
I sip and starlings flap between my teeth,
please marry me to hope, that gap between
currency of hammock and what flickers
in the mind. In this suite a wind chime's
distant bells, pause unwraps another bonbon
of relief with a pictorial turn above the couch
in the shimmering/trembling globe of Chardin’s
soap bubble, mirror for the filigree of me wanting
to be heard or not, waiting for release
from the pluck and tuck of retelling.
Out back, around the lake, it’s eclipse
plumage season for mallards, their bright
green heads molting, biding time
to take flight again. Shih Tzu nests
in my lap, growly sort of purr, tail
wagging like a determined metronome.
I walk to my car, childhood kite bobbing
through the weight of the wind, next
appointment card in my back pocket,
the steady first star of Venus.
Rikki Santer’s poetry has been published widely and has received many honors including several Pushcart and Ohioana book award nominations, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in 2023 she was named Ohio Poet of the Year. She is a past vice-president of the Ohio Poetry Association and currently is a member of the teaching artist roster of the Ohio Arts Council. Her collection, Resurrection Letter was grand prize short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Book Award and her forthcoming collection, Shepherd’s Hour, won the Paul Nemser Book Prize from Lily Poetry Review Books. https://rikkisanter.com.
January House Literary Journal 
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