Jane Bloomfield
Basic Instinct
Leonard Cohen made a cocktail called The Red Needle
Tequila, lemon and cranberry poured over ice, there’s
a coloured photograph of him in a day-lit kitchen
mixing three in fancy gold rimmed glasses
he’s wearing a short sleeve white shirt
dark striped tie top button undone
stabbing a block of ice with an ice pick
on a marble counter top ala Sharon Stone
in that movie she shocked the world with her
muff triangle. Leonard is tapping his toe in time
to his picks and humming the chord to a new song
he’s not really concentrating on the task at hand but a smile
sparkles in his eyes as he secrets the pick into a high cupboard
adds lemon twists to the golden drinks now pink with Ocean Spray
eight hundred and fifty cranberries per serve
Sharon winks and takes a sip.
Bob Dylan’s First Name Was Robert Allen Zimmerman
Once upon a small mountain town
there was a hairdresser who picked up women
in late night bars over whiskey rocks & promise
he took them back to his salon
to wash their hair - apparently
he gave heavenly head massages
whatever colours they had on their minds
the women stepped into the midnight
tingling moonshine scented scalps but damp
curly locks - they couldn’t wait any longer for
the world to begin while he longed to see them in
the morning light - they all said he looked like
young Bob Dylan
I recall his name was Robert.
Editor’s Note: This poem contains lyrics from Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay.”
The Definition of Affection
After dinner each night, my grandfather peeled, sliced and
cored an apple for my Nana, presenting it to her on a small
floral saucer in gentle act of affection. I can see him now sat
in the mid-century chair between chiffonier and side table
a smoked pipe cooling in his ash tray, a mother of pearl
handled fruit knife beside the ribbon of peel - a yellow globe
under the long skinny water colour of Gallipoli - worlds away
on the wall beside him. A smile lifting his face as she offered
him the last quarter.
Queenstown, New Zealand based writer, Jane Bloomfield, is the author of the Lily Max children’s novels. Her poetry and CNF are published in Tarot, Turbine |Kapohau, Does It Have Pockets, a fine line - NZ Poetry Society, Roi Fainéant Press, MEMEZINE, The Spinoff, Sunday Magazine and more. Find her at Jane Bloomfield: truth is stranger than fiction -janebloomfield.blogspot.com.
