Two poems by Mary Julia Klimenko

Aditya Doshi



PROPHYLACTIC SONG

She had some blue earrings
he loved to put
                               his hand between her legs
and he admired her blue
earrings were lost somehow
and she understands the secret part
it was because they were
                                                 beautiful
too beautiful for her         they made him fuck her
all the time and when the druggist told him

they were the best kind because they weren’t too
wet
        you know    juicy     well he wasn’t thinking about
her
     blue earrings made her cry because they were
lost and that bitch hid them from herself
in her own sleep and
                                        he makes phone calls to her
in the night and tells her not to wear stockings
so she puts on the white silk ones
                                                                   he doesn’t call
for three days
she is considering
                                   taking them off

​



LAST  LIGHT

She wanted last light                  something beautiful.      He

                                wanders                            in heat lightening.

Imagining                            possibilities                    room for two

release and rain               she knows        this problem can be fixed.

                Aware                  she may lose    edges get sharp

no          magic fix                             no one grieves at the edge

                             wild  streams                     or a shoreline

tall grass                          she doesn’t                        block

                his escape route           she knows

she has to wait                 become invisible          dusk

                               quiet and still    until he
        
                                                                               returns.

​


Bio: Mary Julia Klimenko obtained her BA & MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University where she taught Creative Writing for two years before returning to school to get a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology. She divides her time between her private psychotherapy practice and writing. She has a chapbook published by Spire Press, Source Vein, is published in numerous literary journals and has three limited edition books in print in collaboration with artist, Manuel Neri.