This is a sample poem from “The Hard Won Hush.” There seems to be something about this little poem. The reaction it gets makes me think that people must relate to it, though it's not quite what some think it is. Way back, when I began submitting my work to magazines and anthologies, “Scorpio Passing” was the one that editors wanted. After it was published three or four times, I stopped sending it out with the others. In those days, you could apply for an Arts Council grant to work on a book if you already had a book published or what they felt to be the equivalent number of poems (40) published in magazines. I imagined myself explaining to the Council that, “Yes, I do have 40 poems published in various literary magazines, but it's only the one, published 40 times.” I guess the equivalent to that would be a book of poetry that had the same poem on every page. Very Avant Garde.

Scorpio Passing

Must you
Lace your love
With poison
Strike from above
Like a slumming angel?
An instant in your eyes
Is one look too long.
Your death dance
Is just a walk-on
A cameo disappearance
That leaves me lifeless
Stung.

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