Lindsay Reed - Two Poems

Pre-Analysis

There are places so deep
inside you there is no
gender anymore. We are
all innocent and female
because the male has not
yet been called to battle.
Here it is okay to cry.
Here it is very wet.
Let's live here in the
axe wound that contains
the universe and regress
to the point where existence
means more than potential.



No Mixer

I realized drinking vodka
didn't help me learn Russian.
But it means 'little water'. Cute water.
Writing on kindergarten paper
with a fat pencil did help though.
I write it pretty well,
speak it like a kid.
Eager but greatly lacking.
I drink vodka the best.
Now I listen to my downstairs
neighbors speak Russian late
at night and smell their cigarette
smoke mixed with mine on the patio.
I can taste the consonants
that don't exist in English.
So many times I hear a word I know.
'I understand' and 'Do you understand?!'
I wish I did.
If I had the courage,
enough vodka, I would
lean over the rail
and say 'Good night'
in their beautiful language
that calls night
night only after midnight.



Lindsay Reed lives in Denver and practices massage therapy.