Issue 1 • Spring 2002 • Poetry

in the east

Lauren Wheeler

may twilight kiss her eyelids gently like a whisper that began as a wailing on the west side of l.a. / "i love you" please calculate the speed of sound / my heart rate-the pace of my heart pounding, rattling my ribcage / please calculate the speed of sound / the speed of light / they say the sun rises in the east / they say japan is the land of the rising sun / but she lives in new jersey / they say the sun never sets on the british empire / but she lives in new jersey / they say the sun rises in the east / please calculate the speed of light / what time is it? / new jersey is three hours ahead of california and she's due to crest at noon her time which means i smile at nine my time and shout "i love you" at her halo for the rest of the day / please calculate the speed of light / the speed of sound / can you hear that? / "i love you" / the speed of sound / the speed of light / each day i smile at nine / they say the sun rises in the east / rises in the east -- "i love you" -- in the east

Globetrotter Lauren Wheeler was born in Chicago, raised in Miami Beach, did a stint in Ithaca, New York while getting her BA in English Lit from Cornell University, hung out in Berkeley for a little while for the sake of her sanity, lost it all over again in Los Angeles, and is presently living in Oakland. She represented the Mission District at the 1998 National Poetry Slam and Ithaca in 1999. Lauren was also the host of the Tongue & Groove and Re-verse poetry series in Ithaca. She has featured on both coasts and performed the Bay Area dates of 2001's Ignition Tour with Daphne Gottlieb. Lauren may be reached at laurenwheeler@aol.com.

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