Lodestar Quarterly

Lodestar Quarterly
Figure reaching for a star Issue 10 • Summer 2004 • Poetry

Snap-Button Lock

Karyna McGlynn

She lolls her head sideways
into the airless cavern: her own pleasure
giant kettle drum
Her sister's hands melt
two rooms over
land dripping
on the same
two notes

God: man is a pillow, lips like a woman

Thinks: Malcolm McDowell has a huge prick
maybe?

The friction, the iffy snap-button
lock, little feet run past
too close together
lock in on it

Dehydrated
by Texas beer and salt and air conditioning
lock in on it

All she does is watch movies
constant planning for the next meal
baby-flesh strewn haphazardly
never-ending supply
the house smells like plastic things
and cooked carrots

Might as well die right though the bed
completely desensitized
wadded up towel between her legs

hours grinding up to a small sense of love

Originally from Austin, Texas, Karyna McGlynn is a writer and photographer living in Seattle. Her work has appeared in Wisconsin Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, Porcupine, Coal City Review, Scrivener, Good Foot, Orbis, Medicinal Purposes, Pindeldyboz, and Blueline. A four-time member of National Poetry Slam Teams from Austin and Seattle and winner of the 7th Annual Superbowl of Poetry, Ms. McGlynn is the founder of Screaming Emerson Press, which publishes chapbooks by spoken-word poets. Her poetry is featured on the Best of Slamchannel DVD and in the movie Rhapsodists, a documentary about women performance poets. Karyna attends the Creative Writing Program at Seattle University where she serves as poetry editor for Cascadia Review.

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