Five Poems by Karen A VandenBos

 

Janis, A Voice Full of Instruments

 

 

Raw and expressive as a blues harmonica 

her voice conjures a peripatetic sustained 

note of eighty eight keys, a sound the size 

of Texas. With raspy textures, bluesy grit 

and growls she exhales like a jazz horn full 

of emotion. As if she open tunes her vocal 

cords her wail is like the scream of a violin 

on steroids and she is unapologetic for the 

distortion. She can switch from pummelling 

us with the vibrato of her beating heart and 

touch us with the sound of a sultry blend of 

southern comfort in the soulful voice of a 

saxophone then bow to the applause with 

the sharp cackle of a crow.

 

 

 

 

She Looked at Them All with Desire

 

 

She had breasts that jutted like the  

Tetons of Wyoming and a body as  

round as the earth. She wore boots  

the size of Clementine's which were 

already a nine at birth. She could  

lasso the moon and shoot a falling  

star and read poetry to her horse, 

like Calamity Jane she could out  

drink the men and spit curses like 

daggers through her smirk. She  

guzzled mule piss from shed rattle 

snake skin and rode bareback on 

a bull. She knew Wild Bill by more 

than his name and slept with his 

mud caked boots. The cowboys 

and outlaws kept her photo tucked 

in the brim of their hats and they 

whispered her name 'round the fire  

but she never gave her heart to just  

one man as she looked at them all  

with desire. 

 

 

 

 

Walk Between Two Worlds

 

 

I've met the old Callieach in the woods, 

had tea with Alice in a rabbit hole and 

danced with joy in daisy laced boots. 

I've bellied up to the bar with the juke 

box poet, laid patiently under still 

water to hear the song of the whales 

and kissed a man who had swallowed 

my future. Struck by lightning thirteen 

times, I bear the scars of my many 

mothers and have risen from their  

ashes. I've travelled in the realm of 

swans, walked with the ageless women 

and been touched by the moon. I have 

wandered corridors of regret, tasted 

the blue of sorrow and taped together 

broken promises. I've written my way 

through the darkness, looked at the 

world through ten cent sunglasses and 

chased my thirst. It is with my pen 

that I have learned to walk between 

two worlds.

 

 

 

 

Realm of Pisces

 

 

I have come here to die, go 

back to the watery womb of 

my mother. I must stop the 

bleeding of her secrets onto 

the shore where the birds pick 

through bones and grains of 

sand. I must go back to the  

time when our Earth was  

governed by the moon and  

the tides carried our messages  

to and fro. Tonight when the  

lunar light floats upon the sea  

I will dip webbed toes into the  

frigid Piscean realm praying  

waves do not crash as they did  

on the day I was born and the 

song of the mermaid ceased 

to exist.

 

 

 

Crows Lament

 

 

You gather in trees and fallow fields, 

voices raised in a crescendo of 

orchestral notes, oiled black wings 

flapping like a maestro fanning a 

fire. Three alto caws voice a warning. 

In the dark shadowed corner of 

twilight you emit a hoarse throated 

execution of clicks and rattles that 

echo against the moon, starlight 

reflected in the depth of shining 

eyes. Perched on hidden branches 

you release a song of sorrow that 

carries with it chords of a distant 

past, a dire melody of ancient 

laments. The proclamation of a 

gathering murder resounds against 

the night.

Karen A VandenBos was born on a warm July morn in Kalamazoo, MI. She has a PhD in Holistic Health where a course in shamanism taught her to travel between two worlds. She can be found unleashing her vivid imagination in two writing groups. A Best of the Net nominee, her writing has been published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Blue Heron Review, The Rye Whiskey Review, One Art: a journal of poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Ekphrastic Review, MacQueen's Quinterly, Moss Piglet, Panoply, Feed the Holy, Peninsula Poets and others.