
Elaine Mintzer
May 2022

Elaine Mintzer lives in Los Angeles. Her work has been published in journals and anthologies including MacQueen’s Quinterly, Lindenwood Review, Beloit Poetry Review, Panoplyzine, Slipstream Press, Gryroscope Review, Last Call, Chinaski, and Lummox. Elaine’s first collection, Natural Selections was published by Bombshelter Press.
LOVE DRUNK
Once I wore a dress liquid as vodka
Ellen Bass
He thought I could slake his longing
because he was dying of thirst.
Thirst terrible and dry as his mother.
A mother of sharp heels and barbed embrace.
But first I had to ignite myself--
cool cocktail burning in a tumbler—
until I too was empty
and only the scent of me
remained on the glass,
on his lips.
Oh Christ,
on his hands.
And there in the shifting sands
of his wasteland we grew lush
in an oasis of kisses,
love-drunk
as the sun slid
from its distant perch,
and day gave way
to liquid night.
CITY OF ANGELS
I can see the end of the year from here.
It’s October and Halloween is soon.
It’s time to gather root crops.
Neighborhood boys will smash pumpkins.
Every night I hear the rattling of bones.
Wind scrubs leaves from branches--
the maple’s saw teeth,
the melaleuca’s curled tongues,
the broken jaws of palm fronds
that scrape across the driveway.
Smoke haunts the skies.
I feel it in my chest.
Los Angeles is on fire.
California’s on fire.
In the morning, I find ash on the patio chairs.
SoCal snowfall, ashfall, smokefall.
You see, conditions are ripe for a conflagration.
Everything dry.
Humidity low.
It’s late October
and everything is falling:
angels, ankles, arches.
Ashes, ashes everywhere.