My New Dress
Image: “Paradigm Shift” by Morgan Reed. “My New Dress” was written by Sarah Carleton for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, November 2024, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.
Bird in a Forest
The first time my father struck my mother,
I didn’t see it happen, but heard a sound
I could only equate with one potato picked
then thrown to a harvested pile of them.
Poem in Which I Pursued My Dream of Doing Stand-up
When articles I read in 1980 demanded
a woman comic make fun of her appearance,
I went for it. I embraced my fat because John Waters
thought fat was hilarious.
Big Head
They carried the big head
through the streets, detached
from its neck and its body
but spilling all its evil
everywhere they carried it
The Famine of Love
First the fruit flies fell around the fruit bowl and the air was still,
the figs and apples ripened and then were gone.