Basquiat April Cooper Poetry

by April Cooper

Published in Issue No. 25 ~ June, 1999

this needle tells me

bedtime stories

as the pillow

swells my comfort

with this liquid caramel

slipping under my covers,

touching me here

in the crook of my arm,

a seduction leading

to kisses and fingers

between these thighs

between my eyes

i watch

the mad hatter

play solitaire on my bed,

in my head,

ring around the rosie lullabies

rocking me to sleep,

keeping me awake,

i follow my tracks

to a holiday in Paris

without ever leaving home

my hollow reflection

in the mirror

makes me giggle,

so i paint my ghosts

with joker smiles

and freedom guiles,

i am drooling,

i am schooling

the children i will never have

in the art of dying

with a monkey on your back.

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April Cooper is an English / Theatre major at Humboldt State University in Northern California. Amazingly enough, these are her first published poems, as she is just becoming comfortable enough with her own work to send it out for editorial perusal. April is also working with multi-media perfomance art, integrating spoken word, creative movement, and sculpture.