Ophelia in Aspic

she is under the rice

fingers poking up through the water

playing air piano

 

are fish allowed

to swim the paddies?

 

they should be

flashes of koi gold

among rich green

 

every hillside

a rice aquarium

 

with jazzy flowing

fish and rice

fit for a Sumo wrestler

 

who secretly yearns

to play furniture music

 

and wrap

Ukrainian Au Pair

smoke
            cinder
                          ash

dye job from hell

calls Putin “Daddy”

spellbinding
back tat–

a forest
of impossibly tall
trees

with dark
squid-like branches

loves Billie “Eyelash”

possesses
                  a wicked
                                   left hook

Cloud Corporation

They lock you up
and feed you clouds.

Cumulus
candy puffs.

Cirrostratus and
Nimbostratus gummies.

You float
on delicious filaments.

So much
wonder.

Silvery minnows
of the mind.

Nets
for the careless.

Stippled
with black

floaters.

Dusky Time

last days of autumn
have fallen
on your fragrant locks
like honey rust

clouds in the distance
rolling toward the
Rio Grande at Pilar

trout are biting
rattling the snakes
behind every rock

Star Spangled Bullshit

star bride on the beach
paging Pierre Reverdy

firecrackers
in dubious battle
overhead

not even close
to dark

She yearns
La Mordida

the Frat boys
mirrored

along the strand

her sacred curls

in airy zen piano

Richard Peabody on Twitter
Richard Peabody
Richard Peabody is the author of a novella, three short story collections, and seven poetry books. He is a native Washingtonian and teaches fiction writing at Johns Hopkins University, where he received the Faculty Awards for Distinguished Professional Achievement and Teaching Excellence. He is also the Beyond the Margins Above and Beyond 2013 Award winner for his outstanding service to the Washington, D.C. literary community, and he is Eckleburg‘s Patron Saint of Indie. He is the founder and co-editor of Gargoyle Magazine and editor of twenty-one anthologies including Mondo Barbie. His collection of short stories, Blue Suburban Skies, is out from Main Street Rag Press. Read “Maraschino Cherries,” an excerpt from his collection, Speed Enforced by Aircraft (The Broadkill River Press, 2012).