Hot Springs

I sit naked and wet
on a slimy wood bench
writing these words

at my feet
a few people exfoliating
into caustic mineral pools

hot sulfur-water
under steam-darkened wood rafters
surrounded by windows
and the green outdoors

while the dead skin layers
peel down to my real nose

All Purpose Tragedy

a big square box of black void
between our intensity
his eliminated love had occupied
emptied by my clutching
cleaving desperation
to gasp-create
freedom
air
alone

Hot Springs 2

the earth had revolved twice
completely turning the sky navy-black
to white
to dark and white again--
air cooled then warmed--
heating the metal car hood and roof
to a glittering chrome radiance--

2 days the car sat clinging to the spot of earth
as I'd left it--as the world moved
and I completed 2 days
of my parasitic functions--
filling me needs--my pleasures--
soaking in the hot spring pools
off and on
day and nite
feeding, relieving
growing inside
growing older
writing something down
the chatter
the thoughts seen on my face--
up to my neck in a bubbling hot tub--
the juicy pleasures of masturbation
and sex with a real live penis--
my functions now require a car
to return to the city--
and there it waited
hot stifling inside--dusty out

^

Biography

Marie Kazalia was born in Toledo, Ohio and has lived her adult life primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area with the exception of 4 expatriate years in Japan, India, and Hong Kong. She has a BFA degree from California College of Arts and Crafts. Marie Kazalia's book of 46 poems Erratic Sleep in a Cold Hotel ISBN#: 0-9676660-0-7 -- available from Phony Lid Publications, POBox 2153, Rosemead, CA 91770 USA $6. Postpaid (Canada & Mexico $7US, overseas $8US) or visit the Phony Lid book webpage at: www.fyuocuk.com/erraticsleep.htm. She has a 40 page mini-chapbook titled: All-Purpose Tragedy, forthcoming from CC MARIMBO Communications, Box 933 Berkeley, CA, 94701-0933. Marie Kazalia has appeared as a guest poet on the Live radio program "Out of Our Minds" KKUP 91.5 FM Santa Clara, hosted by poet Dancing Bear and as a guest poet on the live audio/video webcast via LUVeR Radio( www.luver.com), in Berekley CA, hosted by performance artist/poet Frank Moore Marie Kazalia's poetry and fiction have appeared in the print literary journals: AABYE(UK), Anthology, Arnazella, Asspants, ATOM MIND, Aura Literary Arts Review, Bloodstone, Caprice, Chrysanthemum, Clark Street Review, Curbside Review, EDGAR, EPOCH, Footsteps, Futures, fyuock, Galaxy Literary Journal, gluestick, Heeltap, juju(UK), IBBETSON ST., Limestone Circle, Lullwater Review, melange, Mercy, Midwest Poetry Review, Mosaic Magazine, Nerve Cowboy, Niedergasse(Swiss), Nite Writers International, No Exit, Pauper, Penny Dreadful Review, Planet Prozak(UK), Poetry Bone, Poetry Motel, Rain City Review, SNARK, staplegun, synapse, Talus & Scree, 33Review, 2River View, the Typewriter, UNHINGED(UK), Unwound, Urban Spaghetti, Vagabond, Vis-A-Septic, Vol. No. Magazine, Way Station Magazine, Whiskey Island Magazine, yefief and others, as well as in over 75 electronic literary journals. She won 3rd cash prize in the 1998 Serpentine Short Fiction Competition (http://www.serpentinia.com) Marie Kazalia is listed in 2000 year edition of Who's Who in America, and Who's Who of Women in America.