Ruth Holzer’s poetry has appeared in Southern Poetry Review, Plainsongs, Poet Lore, Cold Mountain Review, Passager, Earth’s Daughters, and in other journals and anthologies. Her short poems in Japanese forms have also been widely published. She is the author of five chapbooks, including A Face in the Crowd and Why We’re Here. Among her awards are the Edgar Allan Poe Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of Virginia and the Tanka Splendor Award.
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Maiden Lane
Click click click in snappy strappy high heels, up and out of the subway from Brooklyn, into the downtown of diamond merchants and glass towers of finance. Forget glory days. Now it’s all about earning a wage and living with somebody who might kiss me or hit me after a few beers.
last butt
before knocking off—
fire in the hole