Shirley J. Brewer

WITH ALL MY HEART I STILL LOVE THE MAN I KILLED

Bette Davis blurts out in The Letter.
Only a goddess with those eyes
could pull it off, lust after
the guy she turned into a corpse.

Oh, Bette, you showcase guilt
like a crimson pelisse, fur-trimmed,
the same one Mozart wore
to the opening of The Marriage of Figaro.

Speaking of marriage, poetry
connects strange wires in my brain.
Dishes become flying saucers
ricocheting in a pewter sky.

In the ER, a nurse repairs my finger
sliced by a kitchen knife while washing
dishes. See above. She applies
three layers of body glue.

Bette meets her end—done in
with a dagger by her dead lover’s wife.
Body glue not an option in 1940,
or else Bette’s forgiving husband,

a Mozart look-alike, might have
put her back together. It works that way
in movies. In outer space. In poems,
sometimes. With all my heart

I still love you, Bette Davis.
Despite your flaws. Who doesn’t
deserve a second chance?


Shirley's YouTube video reading of "With All My Heart...":



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Shirley confesses: "Who else but Bette Davis could get away with a line like that? (maybe Cate Blanchett!) From there, I decided to connect some different images in my brain, and see if I could pull them all together, as in a film noir. A pelisse is a long cloak, usually fur-lined. The 'crimson' is a reference to Bette's ill-chosen gown in another classic movie, Jezebel."

SHIRLEY J. BREWER (Baltimore MD) serves as poet-in-residence at Carver Center for the Arts & Technology. A Pushcart nominee, her poems garnish Barrow Street, Passager, Gargoyle, Little Patuxent Review, Poetry East, Slant, among other journals and anthologies. Shirley’s poetry books include A Little Breast Music (Passager Books), After Words (Apprentice House Press), and Bistro in Another Realm (Main Street Rag). Her fourth poetry collection, Wild Girls, is forthcoming from Apprentice House Press in June, 2023.

Shirley J. Brewer

THE TOLL-SKIPPERS

"Maryland Threatens to Block or Yank Vehicle Registration of 131,000 Toll Violators"
—The Baltimore Sun


You know who you are. Oh,
you are going down
beneath that doomed bridge,
down to the tortured soil
where trolls lurk. Death row.

They will make you pay,
boil your wallet in axle grease,
fry your toll arm—
most often the left—serve the snack
with mustard at the troll buffet.

Sure, they will offer to replace
your limb with a metal prosthetic,
a monster hand dispensing
coins for every damaged bridge
peppering this worn-out land we grace.

Show the money, toll-skippers, or hell
awaits. You will take the grimy plunge.
Trolls sniff the air, light a fire,
hungry for flesh in the toll-less night.
Never ask for whom the bell...


Shirley's YouTube video reading of "The Toll-Skippers":



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Shirley confesses: "A few years ago, the state of Maryland threatened to block or yank the vehicle registration of thousands of toll violators. From there, I pictured a bridge and a troll. The rhyme of "toll" and "troll" was irresistible!"

SHIRLEY J. BREWER (Baltimore MD) serves as poet-in-residence at Carver Center for the Arts & Technology. A Pushcart nominee, her poems garnish Barrow Street, Passager, Gargoyle, Little Patuxent Review, Poetry East, Slant, among other journals and anthologies. Shirley’s poetry books include A Little Breast Music (Passager Books), After Words (Apprentice House Press), and Bistro in Another Realm (Main Street Rag). Her fourth poetry collection, Wild Girls, is forthcoming from Apprentice House Press in June, 2023.

Day 2: Mystery Playground features Shirley J. Brewer

On Day 2 of 30 Days of The Five-Two, Mystery Playground features Shirley J. Brewer.

Feel free to join the tour with a comment, tweet, or blog post of your own. Here's the schedule.

Shirley J. Brewer

FOR THE LOVE OF DEATH

for P.D. James

When my spirits sink, I lose myself
in murder. A body in the Thames
distracts me from petty jolts:
a dead battery, a case of flu,
my personal map blurred in fog.

I crave an English mystery, a corpse
cropping up in the conservatory.
Adam Dalgliesh, poet-detective,
dissects with ease psyches and clues.
Death seems less grim in his presence.

Before I reach the last page
I’m at loose ends, dreading
a return to my mundane dating scene.
On impulse, I commit a magic act,
insert myself into Chapter Eight.

Now, my hero questions
me at the murder site. I drown in his gaze,
even though a proper alibi eludes me.
My face turns herring red. Am I
guilty of self-exposure?

He lifts yards of yellow crime scene tape,
beckons me beneath the canopy—
his free hand a sudden heat on my shoulder.
I close my eyes and surrender, saved
from early onset rigor mortis.


Shirley reads "For the Love of Death":



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Shirley confesses: "I guess it's obvious I'm a huge fan of PD James. She makes her hero, Adam Dalgliesh, seem so real! The surprise for me, as I was writing the poem, came when I inserted myself into the novel. I didn't expect that. My heart is beating faster right now, just thinking about it!"

SHIRLEY J. BREWER (Baltimore, Maryland) is a poet, educator and workshop facilitator. Her poems appear in Passager, Gargoyle, Spillway, Little Patuxent Review, The Comstock Review, Naugatuck River Review, and other journals. Shirley’s poetry chapbooks include A Little Breast Music (2008, Passager Books) and After Words (2013, Apprentice House/Loyola University).