a spider keeps me company
its lassitude infectious
little effort to kill it
this mordant heat
panic in impotent windows
claustrophobia of skin
purple fan screams my names
names of internal organs
a colorful wuss
i rethink the south
inhalation water
inhabitants fish
full moon mauled streets stones
carts of the homeless
mad relief
what does not sag drags off-key
diligent hammers of piano
gasp-warp of dark rows
this morning the overpass
dreary dirge of gray train
of no beginning no end
too hot to punct
u
a
t
e
Raised in Georgia (yellow with a hint of black), Julie Shavin, aka Julianza, is a composer, poet, and visual artist who adopted the Rocky Mountains as home in 1993 (a sense-confounding relo which further entrenched her synaesthesia). Recipient of three Pikes Peak Arts Council grants, she was named 2011 PPAC Performance Poet of the Year; in 2012, Page Poet. A composer since age 9, she makes movies of her improvisations, which are on Youtube. She is past President and current Vice-President/Workshop Coordinator of Poetry West (www.poetrywest.org), and is an animal-welfare advocate and activist.