By: Janelle Finamore

Blue Cotton Candy

The day dissolves in my mouth like cotton candy finding it’s peaceful end

Hesitant to believe that this never ending day would actually conclude

Trapped in a permanent wet tongue

Down slimy throat, intestinal shame
A life of toilet and drains and shit water!?

When it had once been so light, so airy, so sugary sweet.
And so pretty.

Once so cheap and disease-less
Warless and free.

####

The Dentist

1

As the dog
slept on the bed
I crouched down

and tried to kiss him
but he snapped
his jaw

At my nose
and I pulled away
buried my head

into the pillow of
my boyfriend’s
freshly made bed

2

As you sat
on the couch
in my living room

I moved my lips
towards yours
while you

slowly tried
to reciprocate
and fell

into the light of
new love’s
burning sun

3

As the dentist
scraped my teeth
with a smile

Glimmering pearls
whiter than mine
he said

to brush the front
then the back
so my teeth

will be as bright
and happy
as his.

###

Six feet

Her ears clanged with his categorical righteousness

Uncalmed by his frozen thoughts and outright blunders, she searched for tender minutes.

Eviscerated freedom, hours of blindness.

Staring into the face of a country in danger of losing its integrity by six feet.

A nation six feet away from normalcy.

Six feet where you can’t see or hear.

Six feet where you can’t feel or touch.

Six feet where you can’t kiss.

Six feet where you can’t live.

But less than one foot away, was this shouting pandemonium, long finger disapprovingly shaking its head at her.

She vomited the tornado that was bubbling inside of her and he was swept away.

But her ears would forever clang.

###

Janelle Finamore is a musician, poet, teacher, and fiction writer located in Orange County, CA. Most recently, her work will appear in “Sad Girls” in September. 

She was Poet of the Month for Moon Tide Press and her fairy tale “The Girl Who Stuck Out Like a Sore Thumb” was published in Bohemia magazine. Her poem “Space Shop” was also published. 

Her poems were also featured in Poet Magazine online and the Academy of the Heart and Mind. Janelle’s writing is inspired by the beat poets as evinced in her self-published chapbook “The Power of Silly Putty and Lipstick Kisses”, available on Amazon. She has featured her book in poetry venues in California including The Ugly Mug in Orange and many more.