December Poetry

Bus Graveyard

Still you can see the blue under the nose
below Dia de los Muertos eye cavities,
glassy shine long splintered, littering
the dressing room to the afterlife
like the left-behind glitter
of a Bollywood star.

Though piled as if in a mass grave
the huddled shells seem content to lie close
to those alongside whom they served,
blaring and jostling along the same potholed roads,
enduring the same smears
of left-behind bubble-gum,
the indelicacies spewed
when the ride was rough.

Stripped now of muscle, stripped
of the power and strain of constant movement
they are still, left
to rust in peace.

—Farzana Marie

After the photograph by M. Reinhardt, titled “Rust in Peace.” (found at www.panoramio.com/photo/11596653)

Farzana Marie

Farzana Marie is a poet, UA doctoral candidate (Persian Lit/Creative Writing), and the President of Civil Vision International (www.civilvision.org). She is author of the nonfiction book, Hearts for Sale! A Buyer’s Guide to Winning in Afghanistan (Worldwide Writings, 2013) and a poetry chapbook, Letters to War and Lethe (Finishing Line Press, 2014). She moved to Tucson in 2008 for a military assignment and remains intoxicated by the post-monsoon scent of creosote.  On December 10 at 7:30, Farzana, along with  Javetta Laster and Anton Smith, will be reading her poems at Casa Libre en la Solana on 4th Avenue. 

Zocalo invites poets with Tucson connections to submit up to three original, previously unpublished (including online) poems, any style, 40 line limit per poem.  Our only criterion is excellence. No online submissions.  Simultaneous submissions ok if you notify ASAP of acceptance elsewhere. Please include the following contact information on each page of your manuscript: mailing address, phone number, and email address. All manuscripts must be typed and accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE). Ms won’t be returned. Zocalo has first North American rights; author may re-publish with acknowledgment to Zocalo.  Payment is a one year subscription. Address submissions to Zocalo, Poetry, P.O. Box 1171, Tucson, AZ 85702.  The poetry editor is Jefferson Carter.

Category: Poetry