Somewhere between Blackbeard and Calico Jack
Robin Richardson is the author of Grunt of the Minotaur (Insomniac Press) and the forthcoming Knife Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis (ECW Press). Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming in many journals including Tin House, Arc, The Berkeley Poetry Review, The Malahat Review, and The Cortland Review. Her work has been shortlisted for the ReLit award, longlisted for the CBC Poetry Award, and has won the John B. Santoianni Award (awarded by The Academy of American Poets) and the Joan T. Baldwin Award. Robin Richardson holds an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and is currently living in Nova Scotia.
Bedding every picaroon from Blue Moon
to some motel off the interstate. It’s loot
that gets me going: gold enough to make me
Midas touch myself, those human jewel-
thieves clogging with the searchlights
of Sing Sing. I’ll play warden, enforce
the auburn system so your silence keeps
us both in line.
The tide in eyesight, all your
mermaids throwing rogue waves
at our window; silly, willing slaves. They
only want your mars mascara-ed lashes
batting once for every inch of dick
you give them. My casual encounter counting
back from riches to the rags we wrapped
our shipwrecked selves in.
Robin Richardson is the author of Grunt of the Minotaur (Insomniac Press) and the forthcoming Knife Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis (ECW Press). Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming in many journals including Tin House, Arc, The Berkeley Poetry Review, The Malahat Review, and The Cortland Review. Her work has been shortlisted for the ReLit award, longlisted for the CBC Poetry Award, and has won the John B. Santoianni Award (awarded by The Academy of American Poets) and the Joan T. Baldwin Award. Robin Richardson holds an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and is currently living in Nova Scotia.