Breath & Shadow
2007 - Vol. 4, Issue 7
"My Rubber Combat Girl"
written by
John Thomas Allen
She offered me a ring, pressed it close in passion's heat against the black birthmark beneath my temple known only to the two of us. The proposal had been a long time coming. Suggesting a honeymoon near her home in a cozy landfill where birds had grown quiet with rain and oil, I hesitated. "The place where time sleeps," she said, holding a mistletoe of rotten white tree shrubs over my head, raining silver powder and caches of hot moonlight. Drawing close, we embraced: a body firm and supple as steel, hands obliging as gripped rubber. Leaning further into her bashful muzzle, I pulled her tongue back and the chambers of my heart pounded: a cold wind turned as her six black eyes fell into place.
John Thomas Allen is a 24–year–old poet from Albany, NY. He is currently studying for his Master's in Teaching at Hudson Valley Community College. Some of his poetic influences are Franz Wright, Mark Strand, and Charles Baudelaire. Though busy with other things much of the time, he hopes to publish a chapbook within the next year.