FRIENDS OF MONDAY NIGHT POETRY @ SUSHI BLUES

HELLO MEMBERS AND FRIENDS OF MONDAY NIGHT POETRY @ SUSHI BLUES & BBQS.
REMEMBER MARCH 10 7:30 p.m.-- TWO DAYS AWAY! OUR NEXT PERFORMANCE. DRAMA, POETRY, PROSE, AND PRIZES! DON'T FORGET TO SET YOUR CLOCKS AHEAD SATURDAY NIGHT.
HOPE everyone saw the article in last Sunday's Post Standard about the debut of our group!
Thanks to this newspaper, we met a new poet. She is just beginning to stretch her poetry wings under the guidance of her English teacher. Please put your hands together for Ms. Cassandra Ballini. We hope one day she will join us in person @ MNP@SB to read for us, OR, as is ever the option, to ask someone to read from her words to the group.
in the meantime kick back, close your eyes, and fly with Cassandara Ballini's

The Comet of Fire and Ice

In the black abyss

of the universe

one star lights a trail.

A trail of fire,

a trail of ice

a burning, freezing trail.

A comet, a comet

lights the night sky

A comet, a comet

could cause so many to die.

A comet, a comet

an entire new race.

A comet a comet

in the black abyss of space.

It does not freeze.

It does not melt

yet made of ice

is its burning pelt.

Yet something strange

lurks in this verse

in the black abyss of the universe.

Continued Poetry Oferings From MNP @ SB

I would like to apologize for any name mis-spellings! and to remind everyone we welcome not just poets, but fiction, prose, memoirists aka-- anybody who has something to say and to read!
Don't forget to bring at least one copy for Rachael. We plan to have a "grab bag" after each meeting where head chef Candi Ramer will draw a poem out of the hat. The winning poem entitles the writer to a 5 % discount on any item on the Sushi Blues Menu!!!!

My Sister

by Abby Meeks


She is mine
like a middle name, a bra size
and I tote her name around on my tongue
Emily
show-and-telling her to the world
the face that launched a thousand memories
that are mine, collected
like trolls and American Girl dolls.

Our Secret:
a fishtail down the hill on Dakin Rd. in January
a vodka-Gatorade at the swim meet
two fingers down the back of my throat
a missed flight to Prague
golden rhinestone twins that pierced our umbilical scars
mine now rusting in a pipe somewhere and hers
shut out and outgrown
by a filler of flesh.

We ask Santa for dollhouses
in matching flannel nightgowns and
in the room with the upright piano
where she takes lessons from the woman from the land of the Philippines
we awake to discover hers, yellow, mine, blue
the first Christmas she stops beleiving in
Daddy.

I'm sixteen, armed and dangerous with learner's permit
she's seventeen and wasted off Alabama Slamma
at Paul D's later
I watch her sleep and she awakes to puke
in the metal bowl I keep bedside
we play American Girl dolls
I hold back Kirsten hair with Samantha hands
combing through blonde strands
I will crave sober fingers years later
when it seems impossible to untangle
my Samantha brown hair.

Her boyfriends are
Jay-Jay the Jet Plane! whose locker is next to mine in
Blue Hall
Adam the Head Lifeguard who laughs at our
fingertoes
Dwight Schrute the future Congressman who hates when I call him Dwight
her boyfriends are Boyfriends while
my boyfirends are "boyfriends"

She still sleeps with the light on and dreams
I am eaten by a shark
she watches helpless, standing only two feet away but
hears the carnage through the earpiece of her
cell phone
they say it is impossible for one to die in one's own dreams

It is impossible for me to live
in hers.

This morning I drove to school and somewhere
between Lebanon and Lally Lane
I sat with her on the dock of the bay
wasting time.

Open Mic Neighbors! Mark Your Calendar!

For all those poets and musicians heading for Sushi Blues on up-coming Monday nights, here are a few related events to put on your calendar as well!
In Earlville, New York, home of the famed Earlville Opera House, host musician Steve Blais will be holding open mic nights on the following dates Mar. 19, April 16, and May 21.
Sign-ups begin at 6:30 p.m. for 15 minute performance slots through until 9:30 p.m.
P.A. provided.
Piano available.
All styles of music welcome; poetry or other spoken word performance welcome.
$1 coffee; $1 baked goods. See you there!

MAD-art artists' co-operative in Hamilton, New York, just around the corner from Sushi Blues and next door to the Hamilton Movie Theater will be holding an performance event on March 15, Saturday, at 7:30 p.m. in honor of Women's History month and to celebrate womens' creativity . Last year 2007 MAD-art held the first annual HER-story event that was well attended. Co-op president Catherine Jones hopes that HER-story '08 will be, too. Poetry and other types of artistic interpretation and talent welcome. It will take place, as last year's, in the MAD-art space. Though the focus is women, men are welcome to attend, to!