Whoosh

By B. J. Buhrow

This collection of poetry explores with incredible empathy the joy and terror underlying the lives of everyone and everything, whether animal or angel. It is about birth and death and trying to stay sober in between. The poems are lyrical, startling, wry and funny.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781491790403

B. J. Buhrow

B. J. Buhrow has previously published four other books, House Fire, Nude Queen of the Communist Cannibals, L'Hopital de la Vierge Perdue, and Officer Dance. She has degrees in English literature, industrial engineering and law, and currently works as a case manager in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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Copyright © 2016 Bonnie Buhrow.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-8993-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-9040-3 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 02/11/2016

Contents

Animals

August

Wren

Midnight Sun

Badly Painted Birds

Sheepskin Heart

Falsies

Again

Mice

Naming Names

Pigs

Perverts and Pandas

Sucker Punch

The Horses

Natural Disasters

Bunny

An Accounting Of Swans

Valentine

Don't Kill the Dog

The Bruising Skies Lounge

Rhinoceros

Bad For You

Frank's Father

Prague

Criminal Children

Space Junk

The Dive in the Dark

Elephants

You Stole

Toes

Recovery

From the Bees

Honeymoon

The Headless Madonna

Not Quite Angels

Babysitter to the Vampires

Black Dust

A Geography Lesson

To Read

Off the Coast of Newfoundland

Gravy

The Voice of Love

Escapee

Lake Superior

The Wraith of Mata Hari

Five Sisters

Purpose

The Tubercular Bride

The Interview

Eurydice

Where Are You?

Raise Your Hands

Euphoria

A Bad Place To Cross the River

Moon

Dry Sunday

Funland

Reflex

Misspent Youth

In the Distance

Light

Anonymous

Dead Yet

Calgary

Bye Felicia

Whoosh

Celestial X

This book is

dedicated to David, my muse, my editor and my best friend.

Acknowledgements

Boulevard: Moon

The Bijou Review: Sucker Punch

Animals

August

Last night was the sturgeon moon.

It was rosy

as an almost healed bashed-in eye.

When my own eye was swollen

and sealed

I looked about as captivating

as a sturgeon

which is a primeval hideous fish

caught for bragging rights and its roe.

The white people up north

don't catch sturgeon under this moon

with its promises.

They wait until winter.

What can you say about ice fishing

except that it is staring

into a round of black water cut

inside a cold hut.

When my hurt eye opened it felt

like a tired flower at the end of summer.

What can you say about fighting

except that it is never fair.

Wren

I dredge up the taste

of the last drink I had

four years ago.

Cheap vodka like choking on coins.

Even after I stopped

my wife left me.

The house is all mine

with its cracked pipes and buckled floors.

These are things I could fix

now that my hands are steady.

But I still lack a decent hammer

or a wrench and a wren

is visiting a branch outside the door.

Her singing is supposed to bring good