Vestigial Portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls
a poem by Robyn Art
dancing girl press, 2006
ROBYN ART’s recent poems have appeared in Slope, The Hat, Conduit, Slipstream, Gulf Coast, The New Delta Review, La Petite Zine, Tarpaulin Sky, Wicked Alice, The Burnside Review, and canwehaveourballback. She has been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize, received Finalist honors in 2003, and has received grants from the Vermont Studio Center and the Jentel Arts Foundation. She is the author of the poetry manuscript, The Stunt Double In Winter, which was selected as a Finalist for the 2004 Kore Press First Book Award and the 2005 Sawtooth Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, Degrees of Being There, was released by Boneworld Press in May 2003. A second chapbook, No Longer A Blonde, is forthcoming from Boneworld Press in 2006. Her book-length poem, Vestigial Portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls, will be published in 2006 by Dancing Girl Press as part of a limited-edition chapbook series.
THE LOUNGE HOSTESS AT LEISURE
Because she was beautiful once
she has never lost the knack,
although she’s had to learn new tricks
involving buttressing and light.
Lipsticks stored in the fridge,
all the better for keeping the hue.
Vials of lotions and creams to caulk
the face and its tundra of cracks.
Were one to come here hungry,
one best have a taste for Scotch,
ladyfingers and company food,
mummified biscuits in tins.
Over coffee and the paper she checks her stars
at the back: something about watching for bargains
and rain at the company picnic.
Once upon a time
in the hard-living days of her past
they were full of hope chests, aperitifs,
drop-dead strangers in hats,
chance meetings at the roadhouse
of some godforsaken town.
So long to the girl in her Sunday dress
marking time on the porch.
Her trail picked up in the marsh but there’s no one
to call the dogs off…….