john milbury-steen

Elegy for a Sole Normand

Elegy for a Sole Normand

God bless this sole.  When he was just a sprat
he defied his fishy dorsal fate
by lying on his side on the sea bed,
and still lies in that posture on my plate,
which connotes to other fishes dead.
He conquered nausea and got it right.

John Milbury-Steen

John Milbury-Steen has published or will publish work in The Beloit Poetry Journal, Blue Unicorn, Bumbershoot, The Centrifugal Eye, Chimaera, Christianity and Literature, Contemporary Sonnet, Dark Horse, The Deronda Review (Neovictorian/Cochlea), Kayak, Hellas, The Innisfree Poetry Journal, The Listening Eye, Lucid Rhythms, The Piedmont Literary Review, Scholia Satyrica, Shenandoah, Shattercolors, the Shit Creek Review and Umbrella

Nines

Nines

John Milbury-Steen

John Milbury-Steen has published or will publish work in The Beloit Poetry Journal, Blue Unicorn, Bumbershoot, The Centrifugal Eye, Chimaera, Christianity and Literature, Contemporary Sonnet, Dark Horse, The Deronda Review (Neovictorian/Cochlea), Kayak, Hellas, The Innisfree Poetry Journal, The Listening Eye, Lucid Rhythms, The Piedmont Literary Review, Scholia Satyrica, Shenandoah, Shattercolors, the Shit Creek Review and Umbrella

My Burning Banana

My Burning Banana

Set my banana on fire!  See, it's peeled!
Set it on fire with your brandy gaze!
Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes!  You wield,
you brandish fire, setting me ablaze!

Oh serve me up with sweat, the flammable salve!
You can be my waitress, not my bride.
You can be my stranger so we have
pleasure of fornication, else denied.

But dancing in the flames who is the third,
the shadow of our shadow bright with wings,
chanting, Holy, holy when ye play?

John Milbury-Steen

John Milbury-Steen's poems have appeared in The Beloit Poetry Journal, Hellas, Blue Unicorn, Kayak, The Listening Eye, The Neovictorian/Cochlea, The Piedmont Literary Review, Scholia Satyrica and Shenandoah.  He served in the Peace Corps in Liberia, West Africa;  did a Master's in Creative Writing with Ruth Stone at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana;  worked as an artificial intelligence programmer in Computer Based Education.  He currently teaches English as a Second Language at Temple University, Philadelph

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