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.
Audio
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 Way It Goes
It’s always seemed to me that there is really nowhere to turn but the arts. Poetry in particular bypasses the dominant culture’s insistence on fragmentation and polarization, offering us instead a sense of integration and wholeness.
All the Fixings
My grandmother saved the butts.
The butt of every bread loaf
went into the freezer for stuffing.
One stale loaf makes 8-10 servings.
Chicken, duck and turkey butts
were saved for stock,
onion and celery butts, too.
Roasted, they result in richer flavor.