Ode to Belinda Carlisle

Next to The Bangles, I think I loved Belinda Carlisle and The Go-Gos the best--OK, well, I still do...

Dear Belinda Carlisle

For as many weeks as you are
on Dancing with the Stars
I’ll give all my votes to you

though I’ll forever think of you
all in black, maybe a pair
of gold hoop earrings, nothing

like the spangles and colors
the producers will make you wear
as you dance with a gentleman

instead of the women I remember.

An Ode to Grrrls

I don't suppose I was ever exactly a "grrrl" because I was busy watching old movies when others were going to concerts and making zines and stuff. But I'm hoping this new poem will fit into a series I've been working on for some time now that involves different first-person perspectives...

When We Were Grrrls

Ears ringing, all smiles
in the mosh pit, the opposite

of violence, sweltering
in the crush of strangers’ bodies

in our pact that nothing
but silence can scare us

that it’s best to shout
all we have into the static

of voices that shout back at us.