Keith Nystrom
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Keith Nystrom first started writing and reading poetry at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge Massachusetts. He has been published in Defined Providence and Sensations Magazine, and is the co-founder of the small press publishing group Friends of Poetry. He currently workshops poems with Ronald J. Goba, Nathaniel Connors , and Prabakar T. Rajan.
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What's a Virgin?
You ask what a virgin is.
Oh, God,
I remember
touching
holding
that warm silly smile, eyes wide
staring
everything clear. focused.
she turns. whispers,
Hit me.
There's definitely a moment you don't react,
but you do.
How pathetic
that first strike
and the tender mockery of
harder.
But you want to please;
but you want to please.
Burn me.
The ritual she made of burn me,
cigarettes and ice, hold
so delicate, elegant
and
the throbbing pain
reminding you.
You want;
but you want…?
Cut me.
You have the knife on her shoulder,
nape of her neck
pressing.
If only it were stronger.
If only you loved her
more.
Pen Pal
Yesterday.
My pen ran out.
Took up
with the neighbor’s
well. Inked
volumes. Colorful
language. Nibbed
more than words.
Felt
tip.
Came
home content.
a concrete verb.
Diss Lexicon
Hear, here, heresy. Disdain
stain of words. Lines that wiggle, wriggle
spin rhetoric of lye. Homonym
to synonym, simple Smith
too at home with toast. Two?
Meanings mushroom, MIRV.
Pusstulates bloom.
Consumed host
celebrates death, body’s rent text, trinity
of Ts.
I lettered in golf. Prim perch. Four
o’clock cup. Steeped
frustration. Stamp. Stomp.
Etymological script? semantics?
a crewel sham, spun
yarn. Metaphor
is murmur. School
dance. Cherry sent
notes. Sound
image. Silentsoothe pith.
At the Cabaret Cafe, they say
there are eighteen veiled variations
to create the straight “A”
in berry or bury. Is this
a great gauge? Is it fake
or faint praise? Is it
OK 4 U 2?
Gr8 411?
Language’s iron
forged for play. Fore!
Christ! so many loaves of ghoti.
Rough Women Motion
