Joan Rivers

1.
on your right
the dark thing
father’s letter to a tramp
college strippers’ dinner
you’re not invited
crackers from the machine
get off stage
people expect
even from an amateur
one good thing
necklace from classmates
a climber fifth avenue
jab and punch
rarely real
corn-flaked motel
dirt-blackened tub
hard blinding
a foothold
the family can’t hear it
your mother mink
father busting out
laughing at dinner
but can’t interpret
his daughter
what will people think

2.
on your left
a man at a desk
ready patient smiling
recognizes you
something soft
the air unlocked
now the bank teller
she loves you
but tomorrow
if you arrive at the gate
and they don’t let you in

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Jeffrey Kingman lives by the Napa River in Vallejo, California. His poetry chapbook, ON A ROAD, was published by Finishing Line Press in December of 2019. He is the he winner of the Red Berry Editions 2015 Broadside Contest, the winner of the 2018 Eyelands Book Award for an unpublished poetry book, a finalist in the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk Prize poetry book competition, and he received honorable mention in the 2017 Quercus Review Press Fall Poetry Book Award. He has been published in PANK, Crack the Spine, Squaw Valley Review, and others. Jeff has a Master’s degree in Music Composition and has been playing drums in rock bands most of his life.

 

[image: Joan Rivers, 1965. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images ]