Poet Of The Month

Lee Mallory

A professor at Santa Ana College, Lee Mallory co-produces the Factory Readings in Santa Ana and Poetry at Alta in Newport Beach, where he has lived most of his life. He was an acquaintance of the late Charles Bukowski and Kenneth Rexroth, and shared time with poet and pop novelist Richard Brautigan. In addition to his seven volumes of poetry and performance features at almost 100 poetry events, Lee has written over 125 poems which have appeared in such magazines as Konglomerati, Mojo Navigator(e), Invisible City, Wisconsin Review, Beyond Baroque and The Smith. He has also been covered frequently in newspapers and is a marathon runner.

Lick This Paper

Make it steam:
this onion skin
vellum, 20-pound bond.
Touch your tongue
here

lick it
like a candy wrapper
get it all out
the whole Powerhouse
Butterfinger
Big Hunk…
Lick it
‘til you see the Milky Way.
Okay?

This is no Rolling Stones logo,
no latent lipstick print
this is the hard mouth school
− a throat without a culture −
a litmus test
this is poetry.

Don’t run from the vision.
Book it twice!
And when you get it,
lick it, seal it
lock it up.

Lick this paper.
flick it, rub it
stub your tongue.

---

#5

He insisted
on being laid down
in the foothills,
which was unlawful

so they
put him up there
in secret

on a high-
cumulus afternoon.

He had fathered no sons
and was therefore
accompanied
to the grave by two women −

the wife
marked the site
with four plain stones

the daughter,
who had brought
the Book,
read some words
for the mother

while a child,
in skirts
went chasing tiny birds