Took a break from my Lazarus Kiss (NaNoWriMo projects) edits to get out to Plasticine Poetry Sunday night. A full house with a dynamic features and equally open stagers. I pulled out ‘Passing On’ another recent new piece to see if it actually works and it did. People identify with subway congestion. Gave ‘Working Out’ another recent piece, already read once at BuDa, another airing as well and it went over better than the first time. It’s all in the editing.
Cathy Petch sleep-deprived from her whirl-wind BC triumphs held her fractured sense of purpose together (just joking) to host a great line up.
First feature Lisa Richter, whose red beads & purple dresses gave her a sort of updated June Cleaver look, did a fun set of personal pieces. The material was rich with pop culture references from Bob Dylan to Nina Simon. Enjoyed sharing the memory of her grandmother as she ‘hula-hooped off to heaven.’
Next up was Marsha Barber – carrying on the purple with her top – she read from her book What is the Sound of Someone Unravelling which dealt with death and other domestic matters with sensitivity and humor. She writes about personal loss without over-emotionalism in an understated way that touched us. The pieces had strong endings and fun, if long, titles ‘Reasons To Sleep With A Man: An Ode to the 1960’s” – the upside of death is that there are no more visits to the dentist.
During the pass-the-hat break I pushed myself to mingle and hand out Trek flyers to promo my hosting at BuDa and my two summer features. I find handing flyers with a bit of interaction makes it more likely people’ll take the flyer with them. Putting them on random tables usually turns the flyers into annoying debris or coasters.
Final feature was Martha Baillie who read sections from The Incident Report a novel structured as library incident reports. To continue the purple theme the first incident involved purple (or where they black) binders. The pieces were funny, affectionate and compelling. Some slipped from Dragnet style recounting of an event into unexpected lyric recollections of a life – one went effortlessly from a book on poisons to memories of sheep herding. A strong and delightful feature. I bought the book (I could only afford one or I would have bought all by the features.)
The evening ended with a rollicking open stage that I kicked off with sex on the subway and ended with Christian’s sex on the freeway. A good time was had by all.
here’s the sex on the subway piece I presented at Plasticine:
Passing On
people passing on the subway stairs
shoving in opposite directions
mobs of important people
with vital messages to deliver
struggle to get past each other
on stairs normally wide enough
but now suddenly congested
as more arrived who had to
get where they were needed to be
backpacks bag straps get caught
on arms shoulders elbows
push inch our bodies
in the right direction
if only we could get there
before it was too late
buttons become undone
coats were pulled open
shoes were lost
breasts where exposed
pants panties torn bottoms bared
cocks brush other cocks
pussies momentairly entered
nothing can distract any of us
from the critical messages we have
from the goals we were required to fulfill
not even these glancing body contacts
we don’t have time to be responsive
to the tongues that lick us
to body parts that we lick
scarcely aware of genders
of brief squandered instants of penetration
as we work our way through the horde
some exit the stairs at the top
some at the bottom
pull together what remained of garments
and get on our way
to deliver important messages
