Marsha E. Newman

Bronx, NY, USA

My inspiration for writing poetry has been my dear friend since the Bronx High School of Science, class of 1981--Mr. John J. Lynch. He remains a source of the strongest feelings I have expressed in my poetry. My formal education continued at SUNY Buffalo, Teachers College, Columbia University, The University of Miami and Hostos Community College, CUNY. I hold a BA in Spanish from Buffalo and an AAS (Associate in Applied Science) in Nursing from Hostos. I currently hold licenses to teach Spanish, ESL & Biology and also to practice nursing as an RN and LPN. I presently work as a substitute teacher in the Bronx public high schools. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to both of my parents and the rest of a supportive family for nurturing me.

That Kiss . . .

I can be yours, lover, but not at so easy a price
Your scent inflames the part of my brain where sex dwells
Your touch electrifies and sends shivers across my flesh
I blush and goosebump as I gaze into you intensely-watching,
Waiting for the right moment to swoop down and claim you as my own.

A chaste cheek kiss will not do; a quick lip kiss fails to satisfy.
So when will our lips meet and linger, parting flesh, opening the
warmth, the wetness, the hot desire that burns within?

In yesteryear, the ache was so intense it parched my very soul.
I emerged burnt, charred ashes, doubting my own femininity,
Doubting desirability to anyone, much less you.

But like the phoenix I was reborn: to slake my desires in the
arms of another, in a foreign city, no ties, only lies and stolen
kisses all over the scorched earth of my body. The volcano
erupted for the wrong one, for as I feasted, eyes closed, it
Was only you I saw in my mind's eye and my ardent response
Was only for you, sweetness of my soul and my dreams.

You must do more unequivocally for me to rise again as a panting,
Sweet, spectacled spring flower lovingly in bloom. You must
Reveal your true self unfurled in splendor upon the tuxedo
Spread out on my silk sheets, waiting lovingly for that kiss
That turns despair to joy and ashes to fire again.

Deuterium Glaze Sandwich

Charitable contributions proportional to income? Yes.
Voluntary labor instead of money or in addition to it? Yes:
Obligatory acts to aid the less fortunate while we glamorize and
Beautify our skins, our homes, our bank accounts BUT
Choosing to bed only the good-looking in case of conception
Intelligent, working, at least middle income, no divorces or unhappy
Marriages please, not immature, too fat or thin, drinking, smoking,
Drug-using no good, no abuse, beatings, consoles filled with
Severed heads; no asthma, diabetes, impotence, migraines, loud talk,
Tongue or nipple piercings, salami, bologna, garlic and onion breath,
Reeking supernatural disaster: Dracula stalking a stake in his breast,
A midget between two slices of bread, porn in marked briefcases,
Lemon cough drops mistaken as contraband, natural gas pipeline to
Alaska passing through your arse to heat and smell up sulfurous
Dioxide home with warm water coming from cold faucet and toilets
Needing two flushes to get the gunk down: water-efficient bowls
They are not. The hyernova explosion twelve billion light-years
Away and what did we catch from it? Nada, but a photo-that's good,
Because it would have blown us all away and our planet with it . . .
If it had been near.

The vampires, the literature, the movie industry-all nuts atop
Someone else's nuclear sundae. What is the point,
O heavenly Creator?
Tell us: we need to know. And we need to know now-before we blow
Ourselves up with our petty hatreds and eons of religions
Divided, we do not stand and the human family
sees only the surface-
The differences which are unimportant because
we must stand together
Or die falling into the oblivion of cosmic soup.

You may E-mail Marsha at johnmarmike@netscape.net