A.J. Huffman- Three Poems

Because Elvis

is still alive and kickin’ somewhere south

of sanity, I twist my way through

midnight after midnight in favored pair

of blue suede pajamas, chillin’ and chattin’

with my Chihuahua, who sometimes sings

(a cappella) of being a hounddog.  Together,

we watch B-movie musicals about the beach

on AMC, and mourn morning’s inevitable rise

before heading off to flip peanut butter

and fried banana pancakes, a recipe that would

take more than a fleet of feral cats

to drag from our lips.

Crabs In Your Inbox

The subject read, made me lol!

Visions wandered south, quick

as the microbial manifestations itching

in my mind.  ???  Your response,

perplexed apprehension.  Relax,

it’s just a pre-dinner picture.  I took

it before they hit the pan.

With Floral

tailfeathers, the goddesses have adorned themselves

for the ritualistic walk of the season, months ahead

of its actual arrival.  They emote fierce nothing

as their streamlined struttings telepathically tattoo

proposed images of our ideal selves

into our unconscious starings.  Staccato stutterings

of stilettos reverberate their points

halfway home.  We sacrifice

to their labeled altars.  Our will, our wallets,

our health.  Whatever

it takes to mold us into the [im]possibility

of their mastered reflections.

A.J. Huffman has published seven solo chapbooks and one joint chapbook through various small presses.  Her eighth solo chapbook, Drippings from a Painted Mind, won the 2013 Two Wolves Chapbook Contest.  She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her poetry, fiction, and haiku have appeared in hundreds of national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, Bone Orchard, EgoPHobia, Kritya, and Offerta Speciale, in which her work appeared in both English and Italian translation.  She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press.  www.kindofahurricanepress.com