from THE THRALL OF MOTIVATION

100 couplets
for Eileen

 

EILEEN'S WEATHER

In a room of blond birds and bare midriffs
you darken like a front of covered sky

 

FLIRTING WITH PLATO'S HATE

I gave him that book of art theory for
a reason; everything I think I feel

 

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

Not wanting this closure, I walk out into stars:
night like a woman bruised hard as cold as the sun

 

MANIPULATION

He's ugly because he's knotted himself
without the roots to steady the wind

 

TALKING TO EILEEN

The heart tremors and parts its saucy leaves;
jittery light like a well-travelled tongue

     Lewis LaCook was born in Lorain Ohio on November 5, 1970, making him a Scorpio. At fifteen he joined the Black River Poets, and had his first published poems appear in their review. Leaving the group in his early twenties, he wrote features for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, and the Lorain Journal. He is currently an undergraduate English major at Kent State University.
     His poetry has appeared in  LOST AND FOUND TIMES, WORLD LETTER, POTEPOETTEXT, POTEPOETZINE, WHISKEY ISLAND, LUNA NEGRA, ARIEL, BLACK RIVER REVIEW, THE COVENTRY READER,  etc.
     Lewis is working on a long collaborative e-mail poem called OUTSIDE THE BOTHER OF SUNLIGHT with Sheila E. Murphy and a collective text called UTOPIA which features several authors, among whom are Murphy, Thomas Lowe Taylor, and John Cone.

      Editor of the e-zine IDIOLECT, Lewis lives in Kent, OH.