Bee Smith
Cocktails with Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath
Of course, we would meet in a bar,
dark as our wombs,
the banquettes lined in wine Marquette.
Three sexy Scorpios—one golden girl,
one sloe-eyed brunette and me
showing the ashes of middle age.
It would have to be August
in a limp Boston loosening
her corsets against vapidity
and the heat. We would meet
at this watering hole,
cackling over very dry martinis
or maybe a couple vodka stingers instead.
We would watch the spills on the bar
spread like Rorschach blots.
We would all cheerfully wear our
ovaries on our sleeves and make course
jokes about male poets and their pricks.
Flirting academically with the bartender
we would order more nostrums,
crazy women swivelling gaily on barstools.
You both would be happy.
You’d swear off crucifixion by art,
decide to survive, become grandmas,
grin and flash nicotine-stained teeth,
wear cliché purple hats and scarlet lipstick
living more potently than legend or myth.
dark as our wombs,
the banquettes lined in wine Marquette.
Three sexy Scorpios—one golden girl,
one sloe-eyed brunette and me
showing the ashes of middle age.
It would have to be August
in a limp Boston loosening
her corsets against vapidity
and the heat. We would meet
at this watering hole,
cackling over very dry martinis
or maybe a couple vodka stingers instead.
We would watch the spills on the bar
spread like Rorschach blots.
We would all cheerfully wear our
ovaries on our sleeves and make course
jokes about male poets and their pricks.
Flirting academically with the bartender
we would order more nostrums,
crazy women swivelling gaily on barstools.
You both would be happy.
You’d swear off crucifixion by art,
decide to survive, become grandmas,
grin and flash nicotine-stained teeth,
wear cliché purple hats and scarlet lipstick
living more potently than legend or myth.
Bee Smith’s first collection is Binary Start (Nisaba Press) co-published with Helen Shay in 2003 with the support of Yorkshire Arts. Bee now lives in northwest Ireland.
Page(s) 8
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The