Cheryl J. Fish is the author of Make It Funny Make It Last (Belladonna Chapbook #171) 2014; and My City Flies By (E.G. Chapbook, 1986) and has been a co-editor of the journals Poetry New York and Ahnoi.To order my chapbook, Make It Funny Make it Last, see link: http://www.belladonnaseries.org/chaplets/ Box of Noses (for Josh)Supine Dome (Bucky Fuller at Black Mountain College) Samples of Previously published poetry
Excerpt of poem first published in B City:
F I S H N E T S
By not owning a single pair of fishnet stockings, have I kept you from these arms? Having otherwise endured the resistance of Cybex weights, they wish to tangle betwixt yours.
The fish the net legs meant to make you repent break up hours of good works... POEMS published in BIG CITY LIT, including Off Side Appeared in Gyroscope Review 16.4, 2016, p. 39
Prepared for rain, we arrive early wearing ponchos Search for soccer field number two, Red Hook, Brooklyn In striking distance of Ikea’s flagship Stockholm-on-the-Gowanus Blackened factories, ships’ containers Trucks fire up tacos, serve plantains and guava drinks
Our team gets called off-sides Again and again, a whistle, a hand, nothing counts A foot might wedge or pivot in air And end up east or west, anywhere They don’t stand a chance against the bulky Latino strikers elbows gnash their bony-boy physiques in fancy uniforms, shiny red-and-yellow cleats Our coach’s panicky indignation fails to ignite passion The ball arrives first The others barrel it into our net when we miss Their siblings’ mock-kick on the sidelines, a dog runs on the field.
Losing takes grace. I head to the truck for a shake Amid whistles, bewilderment One boy boots a crushed Pepsi can Into the blinding sun. http://joom.ag/162Q | Excerpt of poem that appeared in The Village Voice and Response
and is included in The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish-American Poetry http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-anthology-of-contemporary-jewish-american-poetry-9781441125576/ GENERATION X, CROWN HEIGHTS, 1995
Generation X Lubavich boys listening to Sun Ra and getting high eating kosher coldcuts by the pound mingling halakah and vodka can you reverse baal t'shuvah? But in the streets near home, they still wear their yarmulkes and if momma begs, will straggle into Shul
In Crown Heights staying out all night smoking with Rastas on Utica-- Six, seven, eight, ten children in two-family homes. Studying in Yeshivas no science, no math, no sex ed--you get married, go to bed. Everything is in the Talmud. Lapsed Lubavitch boys dancing with voluptuous Caribbean women in midnight discos screwing maybe a secular Jew... __________________________________________ excerpt of poem that appeared in Talisman
U N D U L A T I O N
So many boats cruise by awakening criss-crosses in Jersey's pierced hourglass
this is the Rhine, or up the Seine, it's about proper width and color, almost palpable.
Radiant sun releases apologies, a million little frogs...
It's your move. Come at me straight. Anywhere isn't elsewhere
the sun sinks earlier and earlier September a reminder of purpose-- the writing in the book.
This is the Hudson: strange glistening body out my window...
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