SoMa Literary Review - After Open Reading of 3 Poems at Café Babar

After Open Reading of 3 Poems at Café Babar

By Debra Grace Khattab

I cannot break laughter into my poems
and the loss is haunting
I will not read
into held breath and canned laughter
this tin can room is not my container
and the audience is left in shock
after the accident of these pains these poems
my words cut out in to them
I will not keep silent my voice though
that is roughened and ugly
with the images
I death into this atmosphere
the broken wine glass
cuts into my poem of divorce
the cough is over my brother's death
but silence falls at Liz-Ann
your laws of laughter are lacking
for lesbian whores can carry no legal reaction

Debra Grace Khattab lives in Berkeley. Her most recent publication was in the 9/11 Anthology "An Eye For An Eye Makes The Whole World Blind."