The Cento for September 6, 2016

Cento

1
Everyone takes sides.
“Maybe it’s a terrorist attack!”
“We saw the bodies in the box,
a knotty rope of some version of the American Dream,
except for the places
that aren’t where they are.

2
The Throgs Neck Bridge looms before us.

3
I wonder what people think of you
when you walk onto the train,
quiet as the legs of a katydid.

4
“I have the top but I can’t put it in!”

“Oy! Look at you!
I cannot be your love.
I only want to kill you
when I am.

5
“Our juices mingle,” he whispered.
The tremble of her fingers
smoothed the damp hair of my scalp.

During every First Tuesdays open mic, we communally compose a cento using language taken from each open-mic reader’s offering. This cento is composed of lines from the work of: James McMenamin, Ron Kolm, Peter Marra, Elizabeth Primamore, Marty Levine, Herb Rubenstein, Amanda Sprecher, David Mills, Lydia Chang, Norman Stock, Kristi Hart, Suzanne Bennett, Lisa Terzo.