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CD lyrics:
Winter Solstice
My Love is a Dancer
Holding Patterns
Barrier Reef
Hungarian Love Songs
Leaving, Leaving
Destroying Angel
Summer Games
To the Dolphins
You Found Me
Previous work:
STRANGE BOTTLES
Christmas poem:
What Christmas is
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STRANGE BOTTLES
Nan's first book, Strange Bottles, is a collection of 24 poems originally published by Ferret Press in 1980, illustrated by Andy Markley. We recently found two used copies for sale on Amazon for $30 and $42.50 each. The original publication price was $3.50. See Nan's Amazon page.
 I've got a bottle collection
It is possible for a bottle to be
 almost any shape
some of them quite outlandish
They all strain sunlight through
different colors
They all hold water
When I was in high school
I used to slink around corridors
careful not to touch anything
always on the edge of screaming
I would look for others of my species
slinking or acting nonchalant
or daring to be unaware
You know the ones:
the short, the fat
thick glasses, thick lips,
generally bewildered by problems
of personal hygiene
they play chess, they read technical manuals
they eat rubber bands and glue
to make you laugh to make you sick
to make you see
they are morons they are National Honor Society
they are failures
they are not seen on TV or in the magazines
their existence is at least questionable
at most an irritant
There was the girl with the glass eye
the boy who could not do any sports
I was the smart girl with oily skin
who read the complete Rafael Sabatini
and melted in my demon lover's arms
and wasted time hating
Sunlight comes through the glass
and I am poured full of beautiful ideas
and the girl with the glass eye
can drink her cup of trivial tragedy
and laugh at her mirror face
and the 97-pound weakling has long, clever fingers
and can melt the heart
of the most hardened dreamer
I know this I have seen this
Life pours its wine in strange bottles
Break the seal, seeker, and taste
Paradise
I've got a bottle collection
red, blue, and green, blue, clear,
green, blue
They all hold water
24 September 1979, Autumnal Equinox
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