The 2River View 17.1 (Fall 2012)
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April Clark Honaker

ode to belly

this is an ode
to belly
because stomach just won’t do
this is an ode
to that fireball burning
buried in the shelter of my ribs
to the belated pain
of a thrust too deep
to a latent word
a lesson
born of swallowed pain
a scar
that seams an emptiness
exploded on my life
this is an ode
to raw-ality
to my love hormones
and your survival hormones
to that meeting place
in sighblurspace
where facebook and match.com
finally diss-i-pate
this is an ode
to stretch marks
to pain-noirs
and dead-end roads
this is an ode
to va   ant bellies
and blank notecards
this is a broken round
stroked
     cryptically
             into
                   aphasia

seeing hooks

a trusting fish
hasn’t learned to see hooks
in shimmering worms
though she’s been warned
and wounded
before
many a fisherman
have admired her big mouth
and glistening body
as she’s preyed carelessly
on jesus bugs
did you know
mature male jesus bugs
could mate 30 times a day
if they could pin down
30 females
because the females resist
males use hooked antennae
to grab their lovers by the eyes
being eye-locked makes them
easy prey
especially to the quick strike
of a thrusting fish
a trusting fish thinks nothing
of consequences
she likes to graze the light and air
unable to breathe
it makes her feel new
every time
she’ll be caught and thrown back
caught and thrown back
caught and thrown back
but for now
she’s a trusting fish
who’ll never know
when the next worm she tastes
will transform
and finally eat her

April Clark Honaker lives in Ruston, Louisiana, where she teaches at Louisiana Tech University and serves as Associate Director of the North Central Louisiana Arts Council. contact

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