Dead Heat (for my brother Henry

1953-1976)

i thought the sun would never

find you.

I was wrong

It took strength

to reach out with love

awkward clumsy

still

you kept coming

toward me

toward us

never letting us forget

even for a moment

that

the pain grew with each

pint of blood

that

the burning went on

and on and on and on

this time for me for us

as well as for you

brother

i thought the sun would never

find you.

i was wrong

POETRY

they say

she never smiles.

solid

she never smiles.

solid

SOLID

even when// leaps across disaster bound

love affairs

cven when//

rough bx street

lower cast side

childhood shatters

paddle rhythms

w/stale mayonnaise sandwiches

she never smiles.

solid

even when all that

was an&d isn't

comes thru city night lites

bombarding empty bellies an&d lonely

barrooms//

superslick mami

she

rompin high

Copyright © 1976 Lorraine Sutton

Weinmann

they say

she never smiles.

solid

stompin high

pays the price

&

she

intimate emotional ones/pure

sex

ones

her

(on tequila sunrises

carmen

miranda shoes)

Lorraine Sutton

from SA Yered LA Ydy (Sunbury Press) Copyright © 1975

And so, here I am, in my room,

With my heart

covered with stone

alone

Stone of white marble, a thousand years old

a family legacy,

a trust, shall we say

until, beating upon it from the inside out

with a mallet, hammer

Chisel, burning, whatever tools I can

make or find

I make cracks in the damned thing

hollow it thin

letting the air in, opening for me

an heirloom

of places where hands

can reach across

branding each other

and lighting the core.

--Harriet Weinmann

September, 1978/What She Wants/page 9