Set list from 7 @ 7 @ 7 / Buffalo Small Press Book Fair

At the final day of the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair yesterday, a few people asked which poems, by which poets, in which books I read on Saturday 4/6 at Sweetness_7. Here they are, with links to the books.

I also read "Anomalies of the Female Reproductive System" from Jennifer L. Knox's The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway, but I don't have a copy of that on me right now. (It's packed.)

—Shanna

B®AND LOYALTY
Becca Klaver
Nonstop Pop


I was like so . . . Geico

And you were like so . . . Activia

And together we were like so . . . GlaxoSmithKline

In an effort to be so . . . Ann Taylor Loft

We end up so . . . Crocs

And sometimes we’re all like so . . . Ambien

When we mean to be so . . . Lemon Pledge Aerosol Spray

Although we’re perfectly fine being Pilot G2 Retractable

We’d much prefer to be Crayola Classic Washable

Some days, we must accept, will just be Glad Press’n Seal Plastic Wrap days

I was Kotex Maxi Pads with Leak Lock Medium Flow with reluctance, but still
     I was Kotex Maxi Pads with Leak Lock Medium Flow

Even though you expected things to turn out so Comcast Triple Play

There’s a communal relief to being so Verizon Wireless Nationwide Unlimited

In the end I’d just like people to remember me as being as iRobot Roomba 570
     as possible

__________________________

Fabulous Fake
Shanna Compton
Brink


And that, friends, is when I knew

the ardor I’d claimed was a mere smattering.

I am newly engorged with boner-hard love.

I want to keep all the tastes discrete

so only a little goes on my tongue at a time.

Each nibble a rogue hair, a coarse language of flavor.

How proud we are of our facial configurations,

even if they’re entirely involuntary.

     Mind your quiver, you know?

Let this pockmarked and much-ruched narrative

diagram our decline, because here on the carpet

amid our ratty-assed display, in this tug of war

between the moment and selfhood, I suspect

one of us is prepared to throw the match.

__________________________

Sometime I'll Perfect My Adoration

Shanna Compton

Brink

Here, let me practice:

For you I’ll lose every button

and give up one of my pillows.


You know the way we say

     it’s only money

     it’s only food

     it’s only Sunday at 4:00?

There’s still time.

And we’re still in the skinflint sheets

of a place we’d rather not be,

languid among no-account debris

trying halfway to understand

the guy from the sports bar

and his pharmacy scam in case

it would make a good movie.


I’ll pretend to miss the day we met

if you can try not so much to mind

the piercing when we go wrong,

foaming in the evening, toxic refraction,

to baffle this diminishing sun

into peach-rust-gold derivatives, innate

lame screensaver that (we can’t help ourselves)

gongs inside us anyway in bold-banged time

abashing         abashing         abashing


__________________________

Making Out
Peter Davis
TINA

First, Tina, there is some kind of talk

or isolation or something that brings

us together. Then, in some

moment, we kiss. This kiss leads to

more kissing. It is good to start french

kissing here. I mean, moving our tongues

against the other’s and having

these wide, gaping mouths.

Sometimes, when we take a break

from kissing, you might even wipe

your mouth with your shirtsleeve.

If I am lucky and there is enough time

I will very slowly begin touching

your waist and very slowly start

working my hand under your shirt

and moving it up toward your shoulders.

When I reach your bra, I will feel

humbled and in awe so I will feel

your bra some. Then I will back my hand down

a little and come up again, this

time trying to wedge my fingers

between your bra and your skin. Tina,

we will be french kissing this whole time.

If I am lucky I will soon feel your

nipple. I will have to use the back

of my hand, wedged under the underwire,

to push up and give my fingers a few

small inches to move. Hopefully one of us

will unsnap your bra. Bras that unsnap

in front are easier to deal with.

For this reason, they are very sexy.

This will really be something.

After a bit, I will slowly slide my

hand down from your breasts and

begin to dig between the waist

of your pants and your skin. If it is

a tight squeeze, the best thing possible

would be for you to just unbutton

your pants and even lower your zipper.

Otherwise, I will unbutton your pants.

This is very exciting. I will move my

hand even lower until I reach

the top of your underwear. I will rub

all around the area above your underwear.

I will begin to rub your underwear.

Then I will try to get my fingers

between your skin and your underwear.

I will be successful or you will adjust

position or something else

will just happen, Tina.