Yellow Mama Archives II

Thomas Zimmerman

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Acuff, Gale
Ahern, Edward
Allen, R. A.
Alleyne, Chris
Andes, Tom
Arnold, Sandra
Aronoff, Mikki
Ayers, Tony
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Baker, J. D.
Balaz, Joe
Barker, Adelaide
Barker, Tom
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Barry, Tina
Bartlett, Daniel C.
Bates, Greta T.
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Beckman, Paul
Bellani, Arnaav
Berriozabal, Luis Cuauhtemoc
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Bracken, Michael
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Cancel, Charlie
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Ebel, Pamela
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Irwin, Daniel S.
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Kennedy, Cecilia
Keshigian, Michael
Kirchner, Craig
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Kompany, James
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Kreuiter, Victor
Larsen, Ted R.
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Leotta, Joan
Lester, Louella
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Lucas, Gregory E.
Luer, Ken
Lukas, Anthony
Lyon, Hillary
Mannone, John C.
Margel, Abe
Martinez, Richard
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McQuiston, Rick
Middleton, Bradford
Milam, Chris
Miller, Dawn L. C.
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Mobili, Juan
Mullins, Ian
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Myers, Jen
Newell, Ben
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Nielsen, Judith
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Owen, Deidre J.
Park, Jon
Parker, Becky
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Plath, Rob
Potter, John R. C.
Prusky, Steve
Radcliffe, Paul
Reddick, Niles M.
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Reutter, G. Emil
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Rockwood, KM
Rollins, Janna
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Ross, Gary Earl
Rowland, C. A.
Saier, Monique
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Taylor, J. M.
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Traverso Jr., Dionisio "Don"
Turner, Lamont A.
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Waldman, Dr. Mel
Al Wassif, Amirah
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Weil, Lester L.
Weisfeld, Victoria
Weld, Charles
White, Robb
Wilhide, Zachary
Williams, E. E.
Williams, K. A.
Wilsky, Jim
Wiseman-Rose, Sophia
Woods, Jonathan
Young, Mark
Zackel, Fred
Zelvin, Elizabeth
Zeigler, Martin
Zimmerman, Thomas
Zumpe, Lee Clark

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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