~ fall 2oo8 ~
issue #11

IMAGES

steve hammond

WORDS

ruan wright

writer

as if satisfied

mali uromastyx

rick and jane have a spot of fun

poets

bio

As if Satisfied

Her husband’s
shampoo
is always
awry:
top off
when in use,
on its side
when through
like a casualty
she
sighs
strokes
smiles
as if satisfied.

© ruan wright

*****

Mali Uromastyx

I’m in love with a lizard.
Not your usual, lounge-type lizard
or the sleezeball who
slimes his way into your heart
licking you dry –
nothing like that –
this one inhabits me
so I bloom with sudden, blushing
desert roses, burst
into burning, sun bright
burnished song
sparkle
like the golden flowers that surprise
and swell
tips of succulent prickly arms
after a rare, lavish
dewfall rain.
He climbs all over me
this reptile from the Sahel of Mali
and I’m a country
with valleys and hills
secret sacred crevices
which he fills.
He rides my arm
like a raft.
He stretches his lipless crescent mouth
and I melt.
He winks his inscrutable half moon eyes
and I wane.

© ruan wright

*****

RICK AND JANE HAVE A SPOT OF FUN

He said Come home with me She said No, my home is waiting, right where I left it, everything in place, neat and tidy He said Aw, come on, have a fling! She said, No, you don’t understand, I’m not willing He said, But I love you, I want to bite your thighs She said No, that thing about love, that’s a lie! He said Well that’s cynical, you could give it a try She said, I did, once – now look at my thighs! So he did. And he bit them.

© ruan wright

*****

POETS

Chimaera bred, we see things slant
with dragon eyes and human bent.
This Seian Horse
our seeing course
it haunts us till we’re won.
Our feathers gleam, unruffled seem,
we glide astride the sullied green.
Our gorgon heads
our griffin legs
they glisten in the sun.
We listen sharp with eagle ears
but snake-infested mind adjures
The writhing winds
the thriving fiends
we taste them on our tongues.
Our feet are clawed, our hands are pawed
passant, we daub the wrested word.
We bleed it ill
we blend it till
this monstrous child’s begun.

© ruan wright

"POETS" was first published online at Chicago Poetry.com

*****

Ruan Wright was born and raised in Great Britain. She moved to the US in 1996. She has published poems and short stories in a variety of journals including RADIX, Seeker Magazine, The Taj Mahal Review, Pennine Ink, and ART TIMES. She is co-chair of the Naperville Writers Group, coordinator of the Bolingbrook Writers group, and assistant fiction editor for The Fifth Wednesday Journal.

She currently lives in the south-western suburbs of Chicago with one husband, two teens, two cats, one lizard, and lots of trees. To email this writer, click here.