Yellow Mama Archives II

Thomas Zimmerman

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Acuff, Gale
Allen, R. A.
Alleyne, Chris
Andes, Tom
Arnold, Sandra
Baber, Bill
Baird, Meg
Baker, J. D.
Balaz, Joe
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Barker, Tom
Barnett, Brian
Bartlett, Daniel C.
Bayly, Karen
Beckman, Paul
Berriozabal, Luis Cuauhtemoc
Beveridge, Robert
Blakey, James
Burke, Wayne F.
Campbell, J. J.
Cancel, Charlie
Capshaw, Ron
Carr, Steve
Centorbi, David Calogero
Christensen, Jan
Clifton, Gary
Cody, Bethany
Costello, Bruce
Coverly, Harris
Crist, Kenneth James
Cumming, Scott
Davie, Andrew
Davis, Michael D.
Degani, Gay
De Neve, M. A.
Dillon, John J.
Dorman, Roy
Doyle, John
Dunham, T. Fox
Ebel, Pamela
Fillion, Tom
Fortier, M. L.
Garnet, George
Graysol, Jacob
Grech, Amy
Greenberg, KJ Hannah
Grey, John
Hardin, Scott
Held, Shari
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Hivner, Christopher
Hohmann, Kurt
Holtzman, Bernice
Jabaut, Mark
Jermin, Wayne
Jeschonek, Robert
Johns. Roger
Kanner, Mike
Kennedy, Cecilia
Keshigian, Michael
Kitcher, William
Kompany, James
Koperwas, Tom
Larsen, Ted R.
Le Due, Richard
Leotta, Joan
Lubaczewski, Paul
Lucas, Gregory E.
Luer, Ken
Lyon, Hillary
Mannone, John C.
Martinez, Richard
McConnell, Logan
McQuiston, Rick
Middleton, Bradford
Mladinic, Peter
Mobili, Juan
Mullins, Ian
Nielsen, Ayaz Daryl
Nielsen, Judith
Onken, Bernard
Owen, Deidre J.
Park, Jon
Parker, Becky
Pettus, Robert
Prusky, Steve
Reddick, Niles M.
Robson, Merrilee
Rollins, Janna
Rose, Brad
Rosmus, Cindy
Scharhag, Lauren
Schauber, Karen
Schmitt, Di
Short, John
Slota, Richelle Lee
Smith, Elena E.
Snethen, Daniel G.
Steven, Michael
Stoler, Cathi
Stoll, Don
Surkiewicz, Joe
Swartz, Justin
Taylor, J. M.
Temples. Phillip
Traverso Jr., Dionisio "Don"
Turner, Lamont A.
Tustin, John
Tyrer, DJ
Verlaine, Rp
Viola, Saira
Waldman, Dr. Mel
Weibezahl, Robert
Weil, Lester L.
White, Robb
Wilhide, Zachary
Williams, K. A.
Woods, Jonathan
Young, Mark
Zelvin, Elizabeth
Zimmerman, Thomas

Blue

 

by Thomas Zimmerman

 

 

Your mother’s favorite color.

Joni’s greatest record.

Sky

and sky

reflected in the water.

Unoxygenated blood.

 

A lonesomeness,

an inwardness,

a bruise,

sweet ache,

and easy riffing:

 

blue ribbon

blue pencil

blue collar

blue moon

 

the boys in blue

out of the blue

blue in the face

the wild blue yonder

 

true blue

blue blazes

Bluebeard

blue-haired lady

 

Kind of Blue

Midnight Blue

Blue Train

Two Steps from the Blues

 

blue note

blue spruce

blue movie

beaten black and blue

 

The skim-milk hue

of white folks’ legs in summer.

 

“Too full o’ th’ milk

of human kindness.”

 

Heaven.

And the stars that fleck

your one woke eye.



Fighting Off the Wise

 

by Thomas Zimmerman

 

 

Since life’s at last smoothed out for him, he thinks

his sullen art should have more bite. And damned

Chopin is on the stereo again.

The major keys can make a person feel

a fresh world’s breeze and birdsong, pulse and breath.

The minor, though, they shade the shadow, dim

the dark. He finds this richer, deeper, strange,

a mate for his persona, fighting off

the wise. He contemplates his latest sketch:

a long-necked woman, dark hair parted down

the middle, forehead creased and eyebrows thick.

Eyes close-set, large, and ringed by . . . grief? ennui?

fatigue? The mouth, however, full-lipped, smiling.

Oh to tear the page to shreds. He can’t.



Horses in the Dark

 

by Thomas Zimmerman

 

 

The water rushing in, a tide, a flood:

unconscious mind. I dive, dream-lathered now,

my conscience sparking blue despite the blood

that flushes me, the wet that weeps, and—wow!—

I’ve been asleep so many years. I lean

against the darkness, let it straddle me

to spur, to gouge—my ass, my back, my spleen.

Like being broken in the dark. The sea-

tossed spume on moon-stung sand’s a bright white mane.

The hoof-kick’s quick and dashes out the brain. . . . 

We prance in rain that sluices all the shit-

clogged gutters clean. Parisians ride gas-lit

above the catacombs. We hail Baudelaire,

who promises he’ll take us anywhere.

 

 

 

Thomas Zimmerman (he/him) teaches English, directs the Writing Center, and edits The Big Windows Review https://thebigwindowsreview.com/ at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. His poems have appeared recently in Haven SpeculativeSledgehammer, and Spellbinder. Tom's website:  https:/thomaszimmerman.wordpress.com  

Twitter: @bwr_tom   Instagram: tzman2012


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