Kathy Kieth
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A Collection by Jeff Foster |
| THE USED-MIRROR STORE by Kathy Kieth They have some good buys there: mirrors with gilt frames or beveled glass: good silver, seductive or pleading: high-tone reflections or cheap ones, ready for retirement: designer beauties or full-lengthers or three-ways framed in black or bronze or economic plastic? Still, I couldn't bring any of them home: couldn't look into all those faces: old men and babies and suicides: newlyweds and happy triplets, contented or angry or dispossessed: all those faces hanging in the air at the used-mirror store— I just couldn't face them all: couldn't bring any of them home? HOUSES IN DISARRAY by Kathy Kieth hunker into the weedy landscape of rusting vehicles that clutter the tired lawn like worn-out yard art while barking dogs pace the fence line, undisciplined in their cheerful, casual aggression. Once you cross the chaos of the porch (windchimes and flower pots), there is more dust and debris inside: gauntlet of books and unmet goals: expensive against the cheap, antique and just-plain-old. This house is a life: nothing tidy or organized: crazy-quilt of bright and corroded: clean and, well, not— lifelong layers of dust and rust and disarray where you can sink into the couch, put your feet on the coffee table, and set your beer bottle just about anywhere? Kathy Kieth has lived most of her 63 years in the hot Sacramento Valley, where she has been a musician, music teacher, music therapist and psychologist. She has published poetry in many journals, such as Atlanta Review, Cimarron Review, Slant, Ekphrasis, PDQ, and Sow's Ear. She has four chapbooks, plus one forthcoming at the end of 2009 from Tiger’ s Eye Press (Emily And The High Cost Of Living). Kathy is a Pushcart nominee who now lives in the mountain community of Pollock Pines, 60 miles to the east of Sacramento. She also runs Rattlesnake Press, which publishes the quarterly Rattlesnake Review and a variety of chapbooks and broadsides celebrating Northern California poets and their poetry. |
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