Spring 2008, Volume 4

Poetry by Audrey J. Burge


Historical Fiction

Talk about a best seller written by men!
Here I am, the good wife, left alone
by a husband who makes lists, names
everything around our garden home.

Our landlord told us we would die if
we plucked fruit from one certain tree,
but the chatty neighbor said it was a lie.
“That tree’s got bounty good to eat.”

By the way, did you catch the rumor
about my man's first mate, that hottie?
Not a whiff of it in these slanted pages!
Instead, he ate and we got evicted.

So, on the run, we had two boys
who fought over granddad’s favor.
That concluded badly. Very badly.
Kids give you a pain, and then some.


BIO:  Presently, to keep the juices going, I participate in both a poetry workshop and novel workshop at Long Beach City College, Long Beach, California with Frank Gaspar in the guidance seat. My name is on a neat little plaque in the English workshop room as a symbol of the Drury Fiction Award in 1998. Published a short story in their writers’ workshop journal, “Music From a Farther Room,” in Spring 1998 and the Humorous Poetry Award from Writer’s Workshop West the same year. Poem included in the Summer/Spring 2006 issue of Pearl. In earlier lives I wrote a weekly newspaper column, and in the outside world, various policy and procedures manuals.