Frozen Sonnets

by Janet I. Buck

Gray bands of smoke are still alive.
CNN revisits ash. I don't resist
the black remote that
whispered waking in my ear.
Picnic benches near the towers
are shards of limbs.
Steel we thought we were we weren't.
First waters of old liberties
see seaweed strangling a pearl.

Cranes are ticking dinosaurs
reminding me to shave
thick stubble of the hate
before that final coat of rust.
Ellis Island grows a layer of winter ice.
The harbor hiccups with a ship.
Every plane that passes in the autumn sky
leaves bootprints on a nervous floor.

Res gestae digs up poles for flags.
I didn't know these palettes well.
A songstress slumbering in streets
between the stoplights stuck on red.
Death rattles and we sing a hymn
the best we can with thwarted lungs.
Grief is always smelling salts,
mace in eyes of apathy,
seasoning on cantaloupe.

"They struck first," a chant that hangs
like gnats on going bowls of fruit.
We have trees of pears to pick.
The missing call me from my sleep.
The lives, the kisses, sugar cane,
frozen sonnets of an iris
bees will never bother with.
Each ovary, each ivory moon,
a stranger under lids of frost.
Lovers they will never have
become a ghost in vapor
of November's fog.

Janet Buck's poetry, poetics, and fiction have appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry Magazine.com, CrossConnect, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Kimera, The Rose & Thorn, 2River View, Southern Ocean Review, Disquieting Muses, Urban Spaghetti, Perihelion, Mind Fire, Born Magazine, pif, 3rd Muse, Verse Libre Quarterly, Big Bridge, pith and hundreds of journals world-wide. Buck was one of U.S. poets to be featured at the "One Heart, One World" Exhibit at the United Nations Exhibit Hall in New York City in April, 2000. In January 2001, Art Villa Records released Janet's first audio CD of poetry and music called Before the Rose. It is available at: http://www.artvilla.com/shopping/poetry/rose.htm To hear a sample from the CD, go to: http://www.artvilla.com/mp3/umbrellas.mp3.
Note: Featured author in January 2001
E-mail: JBuck22874@aol.com
Writing interests: Poetry
Poems: "The Orphan", "Caught in Lesser Tragedies", "The Broken Promise", "The Gargoyle", "The Going", "The Bag Lady", "Rushing Toward Entelechy", "The Paralyzed Apocalypse", "Frozen Sonnets", "New York, New York", "Live on CNN", "America Under Siege", "Gutter Balls"
Links: Hot Links: Janet I. Buck, Janet's Latest Interview, Desideratum's Doggie Dish, Author's Den, Active Amp.org—Features Janet I. Buck, Poetry Magazine.Com-October-Janet Buck, The Part-time Postmodernist (August 2000), San Francisco Salvo, Moongate: Janet I. Buck, Offcourse, The October Country , Cafe Society: Poetry Life & Times, Kookamonga Square, The Adirondack Review , janetbuck.com, Funky Dog Publishing—Janet Buck's Strawberry Nipples, Athens Avenue—Janet I. Buck, One World-One Heart Exhibit , Ygdrasil: Issue 9 September 2000