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JOEL BETTRIDGE is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in the poetics program at S.U.N.Y. Buffalo. His poems have appeared in The Washington Review, Kiosk and LVNG. ALPHABET POEMS for Jennifer a suppose world ends so what __ imagine hint of kelp on a silver big sea b Saw the sun blue to blue between gutter and Tulip stem __ web c and days beside - rise __ full of night watch winter long quite stills __ sky run all a relic d see how earth curves __ over grasses till day s end e __ membrane of a bumblebee's point in spectrum turned insideout appletree f that it was __ __ raven's wing, one red leaf g sun's out still cold __ that's the trouble here __ can't count on single thing h would that were out this instead __ taste of salt from wherever hesitation __ no way to though i unless in mesquite limb ¾ inch tip or turn of ocean __ wave over wave sand dollar's i j misplaced letter "j" k and Tucson __ puddles after monsoon about 3 o'clock l play the blues vividness, color of wet sand __ inhale street tuned night a base hurled sax going like hell m cycle at stop have withstood __ minute by minute wall crumbles over 5 hundred years beneath prickly pear joints all abloom n Try'n make a good end dandelion sprouts against palm __ sun down to his slumber gone long way from heaven o Strange what spring seems now turn of wrist color of skin below pulse edge of right middle finger down through palm, through forearm single gesture __ charcoal across white, it splinters prism into 1ooo p And poor old Homer blind, blind as a starfish __ had a good ear, ear for the sea-surg when you got him going he wouldn't shut up q hit'em in face w/ a pool q r regret tonight __ in this dingy town __ remain, shall we say, wonder, need a buck for beer s sky leaks __ buckets full of crows t night deeps jazz rimed tune stars stretch out as a honey pot u such a moon once __ puncture occasional Arkansas out like rusted button __ __ sprawl __ lantern bijou v And Brother off Africa __ fighting HIV w as for probably crow leaps up just as if it was __ becomes crow x bend, ( ) Iris around twists seashell __ curve of her cervix y __ shape of red clay z cross section rainbow cornea builds the sun __ see it @ molecular level or falls apart in one beat of hummingbird's wing __ tumbled out of Oz |