Tuesday, May 15, 2012

To Be Continued Bookstore


Charles Bondhus teaches Creative Writing at Raritan Valley Community College. He will be reading for the Somerset Poetry Group at the Bridgewater Public Library in October, the date still to be set by the library.
He will be reading on Friday, June 8, 2012 @ 7pm at the To Be Continued Bookstore, 431 Main Street, Metuchen, NJ (917) 686-6056


APRIL

Spring is the deadly time
when the yellow and black
spider builds a net in the garden,
swinging her pulpy mass
from lilac to forsythia,
pulling a banner of gauze as she goes,
proclaiming the potency of her venom.

Nearby, in the purple-green
thicket, soft beasts couple
brutally, the male’s crescent
teeth gnashing his mate’s neck
tissue-deep; her howls
startle a preening cardinal
out of his nest,
scattering twigs
and cutting a red gash
across the egg-blue sky.

No less frantic, the robins
careen into the patio door all morning,
their winged bodies ill-adapted
to the human world of glass boundaries.

And we two
no longer needing each other’s skin
to keep out the winter’s cold
spend the day soundlessly,
conceiving new excuses
to continue sharing a bed.