Issue 1

About the Poet:

DeAnn Emett got her start in slam poetry at an open mic reading in Salt Lake City, Utah. Since that time, she has made it onto two National Slam Poetry teams (including this year’s Salt City Slam team which will compete in St. Paul, Minn. this August). After making it to the group piece final stage during her first trip to Nationals, she and her friend, Cody Winger, went on a tour through the mid-west performing in places like St. Paul, Minneapolis, Omaha, Atlanta and New Orleans among others.

DeAnn also opened for Buddy Wakefield and Andrea Gibson at beat.slam.uncensored in Logan, Utah on April 2^nd, 2010.

DeAnn’s inspirations are: Anne Sexton, Andrea Gibson, Shae Sveniker, Jesse Parent, Cody Winger, Jack Kerouac, Seth Walker, Danny Sherrard, Andi Kat and John Survivor Blake. You can usually catch DeAnn the last Monday of the month at Mo’s Neighborhood Grill in Salt Lake City, Utah.

About the Artist:

Trevin Prince is a Logan based artist whose “blood painting techniques” bring a depth of story to the images he creates. His early academic interest in human anatomy shows up in both the subject and form of his work. Trevin has a BFA from Utah State University and is currently meeting with potential galleries in Palm Springs and San Francisco, Calif. as well as in Las Vegas, Nev.  Recently, Trevin received the Artist Marketplace Jury selection for “Best in Show” at the Utah Arts Festival. If you’d like to purchase “Backwards Girl” or view more of Trevin’s work, go to his website at www.TrevinPrince.com.

Leaky Rooftops
                by DeAnn Emett
Leaky rooftops show the universe
she’s a fixer-upper,
a patience testing investment
pleading dedication from the pores
of broken faucet fixtures.

Creaks and groans
release each night
as she settles
her achy essence.
On quiet summer nights
she screams
companion absence.

She’s got the charm of flawed character,
bright eye bay windows
that are a little drafty
but in summer heat
 reflect the warmth of poetry.

Beauty soothes her,
moves her out of seasonal depression
erases the past year’s rejections.

Increasing temperatures build front porches
of half-empty beer cans
and cigarette butts
gathered in friendly bunches
of melatonin imbalances

Empty liquor bottle promises
trap fireflies
found on unkempt property

and whiskey
burns her
like a firefly,
a beacon in the night,
her bulb is flickering,
an electric sizzling loveline
pipe wire running dry.
On quiet summer nights
she screams
because that’s when the flashbacks come
riding in with the dark
cracked whip lash crashes
bleeding yellow reveries
against the stars,
self made prophecy thunder
speaking in tones of
next time will be better.
When she’s better.
When she’s thinner,
tongues will abandon patronizing penchants
of enemies
fusing together for warmth
in endless winters
of cold carnal nature—

Mouths sucking I love yous,
pulsing erection’s temporary I need yous,
contradicting eyes of I hate yous.

Sometimes she needs fingertips
to kiss the pieces back together

But decrepit affection
is more lonely
than empty bedrooms.
Summer heat soothes her,
moves her out of seasonal depression,
pulls a pencil eraser
along the territory marks of
the past year’s rejections.

This year,
rather than renting,
her ribcage has been a hostel
for familiar travelers
ripping through hospitable gravity.

And some rooms are still under construction,
the rooms of white hole nightmares
breathing down insulated moments
until time runs out
and it hasn’t yet
But she thinks she has an idea
of what warm dreams
will sound like

when her breasts will no longer harbor
a For Rent sign
and tenants won’t be necessary
to validate her existence,
when the dodgy end of Self Esteem Street
will sound like a display
in a foreign mind,
when society won’t use her garage
to stash it’s cardboard box standards,
when corrupt people representing religion
won’t be allowed to
use her basement to hide their victims,

the warmth of poetry
will dance with her
in the backwoods
of a cotton candy sunset universe

absent of leaky rooftops that bind,
and awkward screams
that pierce
peaceful
summer
nights