Alan Britt- Three Poems

ONE NIGHT ON THE LIGHT RAIL

HEADED FOR COCKEYSVILLE

He said to the conductor,

I’m not gay, but I could be lesbian.

The conductor looked him up & down,

looked him pretty hard before replying,

Right this way!

CREAM

Jack Bruce on vocals,

Eric Clapton, lead guitar,

Ginger Baker on drums,

Jack Bruce on bass,

Eric Clapton, lead vocals,

Ginger Baker, drums,

Jack Bruce, lead vocals,

Eric, lead guitar

& lead vocals,

Ginger, indigenous percussion,

Jack, born under a bad sign,

Eric, psychedelic telecaster,

Ginger, Jack, Eric

& sometimes George

leaving flesh at the door,

smashing favorite myths

against the black moons

of a planet recently discovered

by tilting Hubble 90º due east.

Jack Bruce, bass & vocals,

Eric Clapton, lead guitar & vocals,

Ginger Baker, primal percussion.

THE PERFECT WIFE

The summer of Mount Tambora fueled the Shelleys,

Claire, Byron and Doctor Polidori to swap

German tales about apparitions—

wolf heads with opaque claws

designed for disemboweling human souls.

Lightning tattooed the evening sky.

Mary, feigning exhaustion, retired to her chamber

where she dreamed of creating life,

via the rudimentary stitching of vital organs,

arms, legs and scalp.

Add a sultry strand of purple lightning

and, presto, you have the beating heart

of a suffering anti-hero.

It’s said that Percy did some minor editing,

or proofreading, if you prefer.

But the next thing anybody knew, the Frankenstein monster

was shuffling stages all across Europe.

God bless Tambora!

Mary turned the stuffed shirts inside out!

Then dutifully edited her husband’s poems,

managing books and promotions, thereby securing

Percy’s rightful place in the canon.

The summer of Mount Tambora fueled the Shelleys,

Claire, Byron and Doctor Polidori to swap

German tales of apparitions drooling

over Mary’s bed chamber,

poised to disembowel her exhausted soul.

BIO: In August 2015 Alan Britt was invited by the Ecuadorian House of Culture Benjamín Carrión in Quito, Ecuador as part of a cultural exchange of poets between Ecuador and the United States. During his visit, he participated in the international literary conference sponsored by La hermandad de las palabras 2015 in Babahoyo, Ecuador. He served as judge for the 2013 The Bitter Oleander Press Library of Poetry Book Award. His interview at The Library of Congress for The Poet and the Poem aired on Pacifica Radio, January 2013. His latest books include Violin Smoke (bilingual English/Hungarian): 2015; Lost Among the Hours: 2015, Parabola Dreams (with Silvia Scheibli): 2013 and Alone with the Terrible Universe: 2011. He teaches English/Creative Writing at Towson University.