Monday, August 29, 2011

she considers




She'll do it neat  
surgically quick
Lavoris-clean in white shoes
like a 1960s doctor

rendering him lobscouse
Capote-cold blood overhead
like an icky red umbrella

fresh fodder for ants and crows
left crusted in poison ivy
for the American Pickers to find

she drives off
in a Lyndon Johnson limousine
to a quiet destination for a smoke

it feels good...

but his eyes are open
looking at her
like she just stole his bicycle



Tess Kincaid
August, 2011




reading: the excellent R.A.D. Stainforth, Black Dogs
image:  Red Umbrella, Christopher Shay

79 comments:

  1. the words contagious...the voice of the reader perfection....love.

    ReplyDelete
  2. R.A.D. Stainforth is amazing...he really breathes life into my words...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Exquisite! Makes me want a cigarette...and to watch my back.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Did you notice that Stainforth lit up, before beginning to read?

    ReplyDelete
  5. [every word, every verse, soft and intense at the same time ... as clear as enigmatic!]

    Leonardo B.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tess,
    As macabre as a sailor's stew.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bob, I'm glad you appreciate "lobscouse"...

    ReplyDelete
  8. love it,

    well done,
    you have brought her to life.

    ReplyDelete
  9. There seems to be a lot of darkness
    emotionally going on with this
    wanna'be fem fatale, and of course
    it is food for thought as to how
    much of this event is mental,
    and how much might, or could,
    or did happen; delicious and
    macabre conundrum. As for the
    fellow here, /his eyes are open/
    but he definitely is not seeing.
    Stainforth continues to put that
    extra zing in your language.

    ReplyDelete
  10. she stole his bicycle,
    wow.

    love the details in your magpie.
    perfect plot.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Cello...well...she didn't actually steal his bicycle...

    ReplyDelete
  12. stole his bicycle...ha...love it..and great language...lobscorse? need to look that one up...

    perfect pic too to complete my story...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ha, I took it as a man walking away. My entry will sure sound silly. I really liked the tone of this and images. Icy cold scary. Like when your beter half says she forgives you too quickly and calmly. Enjoyed this much!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Move over Alfred Hitchcock. I had to look lobscouse up. Did you just know it in your inner lexicon?

    again a wonderful reading. you two make a great team!

    ReplyDelete
  15. i really really like this photo. it is evocative, melancholy. hope something will rise up for me from this.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Suki, a friend of mine recently introduced me to the word "lobscouse"...new words excite me and I feel compelled to use them in my poetry...

    ReplyDelete
  17. What about that luscious old car sitting right there! -I was tempted, but no cigar- cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'll never look at a red umbrella the same again.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Perfect rendition of lobscouse. 'Lobscouse'?

    Instances of flashbacks enhanced the mystery of the man 'in the rain with a red umbrella ' Beautiful verse!

    Hank

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hank...I've been calling you "Kay"...glad to know you are Hank.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Enjoyed the details and images!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Gads! That is one sexy inhale!

    ReplyDelete
  23. I think I want to see the movie - or read the novel anyway. :)

    Except I would probably close my eyes during the lobscouse part. Heh.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Helen, I've listened to that inhale more than just a few times...

    ReplyDelete
  25. Ah wicked
    in the writing
    and chilling
    in the telling

    ReplyDelete
  26. This leaves you in suspense...

    ReplyDelete
  27. I'm always delighted with the myriad ways one photograph can inspire different writers. As many different takes on the prompt as there are writers, really. Yours is impressive.
    — K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

    ReplyDelete
  28. You really sliced and diced for this menu... chilling rendition.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Tess, I like the story you told here as well as imagining the story behind the story! Inspired!!

    ReplyDelete
  30. This is strong work. I especially like the first stanza. It sounds so right.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Photo amazing. Slightly irritated that I can't express why...that goes for the words, too. I did notice he lit up at the beginning of the reading, though.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Jack Nicholson and the film Chinatown popped into my head! Brilliantly read too!..Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  33. I guess you will want to put a twitter icon to your website. I just marked down the blog, although I had to complete this manually. Just my suggestion.

    My site:
    DSL Vergleich klick hier

    ReplyDelete
  34. Excellent last line - made me giggle!

    Anna :o]

    ReplyDelete
  35. I am glad she's only considering . . . . .

    Tess, every time I click on your comments I get the private blogger window. Any idea why?

    ReplyDelete
  36. Dirty work at the crossroads, as they say. Loved it.

    ReplyDelete
  37. I find this rather surreal Willow and like it for that reason.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Umm....and which LBJ limo would that be?? The Lincoln, the Caddy, or that tacky '64 stretched Buick Electra that the staff used?? LOL.

    Great scene in this poem! Having a Lizzy Borden moment when you wrote this one?

    ReplyDelete
  39. Rick, that would be the 1968 Lincoln Limo...yes, I am sometimes known as Tessy Borden...

    ReplyDelete
  40. AH! Finally, some blood among these....

    Oh! Waiter, tell chef the Beef Stew was 'out-of-this-world'!

    And a gallon jug of cheap White Port, please. One glass, no--forget the glass!

    No dessert. (burp!)

    ReplyDelete
  41. Steve E, it was eaten with a dark and glossy ragu...and a nice Chianti...oh, and you might like to toss in a few fava beans...

    ReplyDelete
  42. If I close my eyes a listen to your poem being read by that sexy voice, I imagine myself in some smokey beat house in the 60s listening to a reading. Ans just for fun I have my red umbrella and it is raining outside.

    ReplyDelete
  43. very gruesome, I loved it!
    (I had to google lobscouse, its a great word)

    ReplyDelete
  44. Words, lobscouse is a wonderful word...I enjoyed using it as an adjective.

    ReplyDelete
  45. The step between 'considering' and 'stew' is a quick blink... I love the energy of this poem.

    ReplyDelete
  46. This was so apt yet so light and out of context of the your usual darkish imagery and this story of clinical execution that I laughed out loud. "but his eyes are open
    looking at her
    like she just stole his bicycle". Just like she stole his bicycle??? I can SEE IT! Does one have to be crazy to react like this? XX.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Tess, this has to be one of my favourites of yours, cool, stylish and wicked.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Oh but I like this, I like her! :-D

    ReplyDelete
  49. This is truly wild and wicked-- what an imagination-- you must be a poet...par excellence. xxxj

    ReplyDelete
  50. I'm looking at you, kiddo - whole new meaning. Great, Tess! :-) I can't wait to find out what my dreams shall be tonight.

    Maybe not.

    ReplyDelete
  51. murder most poetic - wonderfully noir Tess...

    ReplyDelete
  52. Deliciously bloodthirsty, and so elegantly written.

    ReplyDelete

  53. IF she considers another Manor Ball, and IF there's lobscouse sitting out in the open, I may just dive right in.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Phil...stay tuned for the 4th Annual Willow Manor Ball...a yet to be determined date in October 2011...

    ReplyDelete
  55. Holy smokes. That's intense and brilliant. And I love the reader's voice -- just wow.

    By the way, when oh, when, is that chapbook of yours coming out?

    ReplyDelete
  56. Thanks, Elizabeth...Finishing Line Press is running late...should be sometime in the next week or two...seems like forever!

    ReplyDelete
  57. One of Tess's finest poems in my opinion ...

    ReplyDelete
  58. I agree with R.A.D. Stainforth's comment ahead of mine. And I think your poem was made for his reading...

    (I see at his blog yours is noted as the Blog of the Century, and Penny Red is his Blog of the Month. That really interested me because I just weeks ago discovered Penny Red and I think she is remarkable.)

    ReplyDelete
  59. RADical triptych of voice, word, and image!

    lavoris there's a product i haven't thought of in a while!

    ReplyDelete
  60. Had an inkling what "lobscouse" probably meant from your poem but had to look it up nonetheless. I love learning new words, and this was brilliantly played! Didn't know you had a bit of Mrs. Lovett in you, dear!

    ReplyDelete
  61. Comfortable read. Loved every word - especially 'icky red'......!

    ReplyDelete
  62. Bicycle thieves are the desperadoes of the urban frontier.

    ReplyDelete
  63. looking at her
    like she just stole his bicycle...

    Excellent last two lines.

    ReplyDelete
  64. "Cold blood-red", yet searing emotions!
    This Clytemnestra's plan sounds like it has been foiled.
    Anyone who looks at her as though she stole his bicycle becomes wary of a sharpened axe!

    ReplyDelete
  65. Full of admiration - having just tried it for myself. A really enjoyable read.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Yup, I knew there was a sinister side to the picture there! Lovely read...

    Cheers,
    Arnab Majumdar on SribbleFest.com

    ReplyDelete
  67. Tess . . . I might be delving too deeply, but from reading the comments I get the feeling that none of them have penetrated to what your poem is actually about . . . . ?

    P.S. Where I live, "lobscouse" is a meat and potato stew, beloved of "Scousers", i.e natives of Liverpool, UK.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Trell, the original intent of my poems are often well layered...I like my readers to do a little excavating.

    ReplyDelete
  69. R.A.D. Stainforth's reading of Tess Kincaid's 'she considers' is brilliant! The images of the femme fatale; a knowing she has such surgical precision to render him nearly useless or at least temporarily impotent. A stunning piece of poetics!

    ReplyDelete
  70. Oh, wonderfully sinister, Tess. I love the tough language - a much more exotic brew than mere lobscouse!

    ReplyDelete
  71. Love this! This is one of the best things I've read in a while.
    Next time I watch American Pickers, I'll be holding my breath for what they might find...

    ReplyDelete
  72. It's American Psycho from the XX side of the aisle! - only as seen through the eyes of the waning days of the golden age of this land of ours...

    ReplyDelete
  73. ...and rendered poetic thereby. What a difference an era makes.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Poetry Noir--very cool! Love "lobscouse." Not a word one hears every day. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Thank you, dear readers, for your kind and generous comments. Like I always say, you are the best readers in the blogosphere. You are. And I appreciate you.

    ReplyDelete

Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)