Nancy Kay Peterson

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Nancy has been busy lately!  Here are a few of her latest published poems! At a Conference on Nature; The Old Man on the City Park Bench Speaks; Duck, Duck, Duck; and Lost in the Stars. on-line at http://www.jerseyworks.com

At a Conference on Nature

The famous land conservation scientist
ended his barrage of statistical data
leaned lazily on his podium
and requested questions.

A city dweller (so known by his
apologetic preface, "I'm not a farmer")
asked about combine sharing and
loans to ward off bankruptcies.

The speaker asked for audience input.

A farm wife stood to respond.
"Fifty-four years," she said proudly,
"All my life. Raised 13 kids,
9 went to 4-year colleges,
1 left in high school.
Tomorrow they auction it off.
The farm won't support the 3 of us left.
We did everything we were supposed to:
land conservation, good management,
obeyed the laws of God...
I don't have any answers."

No one replied.
Her husband sat silent beside her.

The hush hung
like summer heat
above a fallow field.

The Old Man on the City Park Bench Speaks

"Dealt me a joker," he says.
"All my life, cards been wrong."
He smiles softly, shakes his head.
"Got fists full of misdeals,
would take a book to tell."
He takes off his bowler,
brushes off the city's dust,
runs a hand over thinning hair,
sets his hat back precisely
as though it were a crown.
Light shines off the fabric
of his worn suit coat.
He rests gnarled fingers
on mended pants knee.

"Still it's nice here,
sittin', bathin' in the sun.
All my sea o' troubles
can't wet my shoes today."
He tap dances,
sitting on the bench,
just his feet --
in wing-tips so run down,
they're a downright shame.
Sounds of the surrounding city
fade to distant mumble.
His feet are blissful blur,
'til at sudden stop,
a silence falls.

A moment later, he says again
"Dealt me a joker;
all my life, cards been wrong..."

 

Duck, Duck, Duck

After half a block,
she notices the duck
plodding after her,
determined little web feet
slapping the sidewalk,
tail swaying east then west.
She assumes she'll outpace him.
At the stop sign
he catches up,
turning his head from side to side,
but keeping one eye on her
all the time.
She crosses the street
mindful of leaving extra space
for oncoming cars.
He hops down to the pavement,
orange feet flapping black top,
struggles up the chest-high curb
on the other side.
After three blocks,
he's still there.
She shoos, he follows,
she scolds, he follows,
she flaps her arms,
he stays rooted by her.
She turns back the way they came,
moves at a comfortable waddle,
stops at stop signs,
him stopping behind her.
She pretends, "He's not my duck,"
and grumbles, "Use your wings."
They parade all the way
to the river, and after three tries,
leaving and coming back,
leaving and coming back,
leaving and coming back,
he enters the water
and swims away
without turning back,
current tugging him downstream,
the V of his wake
widening and vanishing.

Lost in the Stars

The Satellite Cafe was never added on
to the Sonic Motel, because he never
got the liquor license for the Boom Bar.

Now, he figured it was just as well.
After James Dean and Buddy Holly crashed,
the future didn't look so bright.

So, the neon jet on his vacancy sign
whizzes along leaving a permanent vapor trail,
The rooms' blonde dressers still

match the glass-topped bed stands.
The molded blue plastic chairs
complement wall-to-wall red shag.

He couldn't explain the connection he saw
between the way Elvis moved on stage
and the way Rosa Parks refused to stand up.

It made him doubt progress was always good.
When quiz shows turned out to be fixed
and Marilyn died, he decided to stay put.

Besides, since he wasn't close enough
to where they built interstates
to lose or gain any business,

there was never any reason to up-date.
He never got over or out of the 50s,
simply sat silently watching his sign blink,

lost in the stars.


Bedrock Blues


Sue’s xylophone ribs
lay in South Dakota soil
for millennia, at rest,
the music she carried
long ago disemboweled
by a razor-toothed carnivore
with a taste for raw dinosaur.

Sue’s drum skull emptied
by worms and maggots
lay hollow as the tom-toms
played above her brainless head.
The dancers were oblivious
to the glory she once was, thinking
buffaloes the greatest beasts.

Sue’s rising for a profit
cooked a riff of counter claims
by finders, diggers, tribes and scholars
debating over her final, final
resting place. She ended up
standing up miles from her bed
in a room with no windows nor dignity.

 

At the Bus Stop in Fort Wayne, Indiana

At the bus stop on Center Street, at 8:03 A.M.,
a woman folds and unfolds a kleenex.
She is small, with a nose too big,
thin pale chapped lips,
and bottle-bottom-thick glasses
that distort her eyes like carnival mirrors.
She folds and unfolds a kleenex.

It came from the torn pocket of
her brown, bald-elbowed winter coat.
She bows her head; her
straggly pom-pommed stocking hat
flops forward, a limp penis.
Every day, waiting for the 8:08,
She folds and unfolds a kleenex.

She takes off raggedy mittens,
takes her kleenex from her pocket and
unfolds it, intent on what's inside,
then folds, unfolds, folds, puts it back --
on go her mittens, off go her mittens,
out comes the kleenex -- she unfolds
and folds and unfolds a kleenex.

Warm seasons, she sometimes
pokes at what's inside.
Winters, she merely looks.
Sometimes she mutters softly,
like wind sighing, not loud enough to hear.
Over and over and over again,
she folds and unfolds a kleenex.

I've been watching her for months,
never close enough to see, to hear, to know

if it's empty.

 
A surrealistic, character prose poem

A View From the Loft, Minneapolis, MN; on-line publication

            “Beginning to End,” Le Poème finalist, April-May 2003

Beginning to End

It was when she began not remembering what was and what was not.
	There were the bizarre dreams, bodies falling out of chimneys,
	horses telling her fortune, her work pod climbing Everest. 
	Those were okay; she knew they were dreams.  
But then she dreamt conversations with friends and family, 
	ordinary conversations about everyday things. 
	She would remember them, but not remember if they happened.
	Then she wasn't sure if what happened really happened; 
so she began to live in a sort of fugue state, 
	not quite knowing if she were really there or really herself; 
	and it all began to be both dream and real
	and she decided, finally, it didn't matter anymore.  
After she dreamt she died in her sleep, there was no reason to get up.

 

A found, list poem

Red Booth Review

            “Bar Notes,” Print version in eager to lose, Beltsville, MD, Summer 2k3
           “Bar Notes,” Issue 11 Online, October, 2002;

Bar Notes
Food being served 
every day in Pub,
2nd door to the left.
Steakhouse next door to the left.
Steakhouse 2nd door on the right.
Wel-come on in.
Men's room not in service after 
restaurant is closed.
It is our desire to keep 
this (women's room) as clean 
and sanitary as possible.  
If it is not, please 
notify one of our employees.
Domestic beer will be $2.00 
when DJ or band start.
(Red dot) $2.75.
(Blue dot) $3.00.
(Green dot) $3.25.
All labels are $2.50.
This person (xeroxed picture)
is not 21 years of age.
Do not sell alcohol to him.
No credit cards.
Checks taken for food only.  
No change returned.
*Notice* If you start a fight, 
you will be barred permanently.
BARRED list as revised 5/28/97.
CHARGES FILED AGAINST list.
Thank you for your patronage.
 

Dark humor

FMAM Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, Minneapolis, MN

            “A Sunday Drive with Alfred,” Summer 2004

A Sunday Drive with Alfred
They say the best place to hide a body
is in plain sight, like the wide wooded median
of a rural freeway, the steeper, the better.
Less likely that meanderers will visit, 
and adopt-a-highway litter gatherers
won’t scale a difficult slope
for garbage they can’t see.
Scouting out the workmanship quality 
of the litter patrol might prove prudent.
Identify a lazy group and join in,
find out where they never look,
or identify an orphaned by-way
and adopt it yourself.
Some suggest blanketing with autumn leaves.
A quick winter snowfall 
buries worries till spring. 
Others contend cold
preserves far too well,
while late spring’s quick green cover
is followed quite conveniently
by a season of heated decay.  
I think you should test theories 
with a pot roast or turkey. 
Shall we take the next exit?

 

 
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