GREEN, GREEN, & TENDER A thesis submitted To Kent State University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts by Karly R. Milvet May, 2016 © Copyright All rights reserved Except for previously published materials Green, Green, & Tender written by Karly R. Milvet B.A., Kent State University, 2012 M.F.A., Kent State University, 2016 Approved by Catherine Wing , Advisor Robert Trogdon , Chair, Department of English James L. Blank , Dean, College of Arts and Science Table of Contents Part I Midnight, Tiny Tokyo..................................................................................................................... 2 Coming Over................................................................................................................................... 3 Someday Knowing.......................................................................................................................... 4 Advice I Should Have Taken.......................................................................................................... 6 [ ] .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Dear Anna....................................................................................................................................... 8 A Story of Origins......................................................................................................................... 10 A Poem Is the Threat Of What We’re Made Of........................................................................... 11 The Underwater Box Escape........................................................................................................ 13 A Biography of Witholding.......................................................................................................... 14 [ ] ........................................................................................................................................ 15 Dear Anna..................................................................................................................................... 16 Self-Portrait in Perpetuity............................................................................................................. 17 From the Ninth Story.................................................................................................................... 18 [ ] ........................................................................................................................................ 19 Self-Portrait, Reflection in Glass.................................................................................................. 20 Dear Anna..................................................................................................................................... 21 Houdini Talks Craft...................................................................................................................... 22 [ ] ........................................................................................................................................ 23 i Poem In the Shape of Two Prostitutes On Crosby St. ................................................................. 24 Dear Anna..................................................................................................................................... 26 [ ] ........................................................................................................................................ 27 Sorrow & Declarations From My Tear Duct................................................................................ 28 Part II Questions For Profiling Mortality................................................................................................. 30 Self-Portrait, Yearning.................................................................................................................. 31 Smoke........................................................................................................................................... 32 Dear Anna..................................................................................................................................... 33 [ ] ........................................................................................................................................ 34 Houdini’s Metamorphosis............................................................................................................. 35 Elegy For Finishing a Good Book................................................................................................ 37 Whale Song................................................................................................................................... 39 Poem For the Shape Of My Crooked Mouth................................................................................ 40 [ ] ........................................................................................................................................ 41 Dear Anna..................................................................................................................................... 42 Informal Fugue For Piano, Four Hands........................................................................................ 43 [ ] ........................................................................................................................................ 44 Houdini On Making Art Out Of Obstacle..................................................................................... 45 Dear Anna..................................................................................................................................... 46 New Metrics For Assimilation...................................................................................................... 47 ii [ ] ........................................................................................................................................ 49 A Poem Is Still the Threat Of What We’re Made Of................................................................... 50 The Barn Door, Ajar..................................................................................................................... 51 I’m Becoming a Regular at the Garrettsville Laundromat............................................................ 52 iii Part I 1 Midnight, Tiny Tokyo Goodnight my pocket-size foreign-tongued city, my neon calligraphy moon-heart, terracotta floor pot rounding out the corners of the room Goodnight my wing, my latitude my unambiguous, quite significant you sauterne of noble rot sweet-mouthed distinction on a Tuesday afternoon lit up My love you are teeming with lip and lemon Sleep well my urban wilderness my kit-kat, laugh track, soft boiled egg via release of steel coil from vending machine My love you amuse me with your loyalty to please Far-away pillow how I venture to you, keep you the way a conch shell is packed from the beach in my ear the ocean each time so delightfully new 2 Coming Over What breathes between us is the color of a feather. It wasn’t hard to find you. I knew to look left. In this town, you look like everyone I know except with wings. Tell me again the shape of the rain and the tenderness of elephants who remember. How are you? Be gentle. I can’t think of a thing to say except I’m hungry and I forgot to take my shoes off. 3 Someday Knowing I don’t want anyone to think I’m anything less than a very affectionate cat or more than the delicacy of my atomic composition. How our bodies hum together in similar blood sound though we try not to be alone in our separate vessels. Some of us want to take everything in but I don’t want anyone viewing me that closely. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m any kind of possibility. I’m no poker chip or porcupine, no I am the unrealized idea of some cerulean coastline, like Nice. Here is a photograph of Nice I didn’t take. I’ve never been to France but Nice looks like a place anyone would like to go, I mean the sand is so white how could anything bad happen and look at all the umbrellas which intimate endless sun and salt and sexy tanlines. I mean think of the anonymity, the hush of white sheets, that tourist feeling. 4 I don’t want anyone knowing more than enough. I don’t want anyone knowing I haven’t been there that I’d really someday like to go and bare my ocean colors. So here’s this photograph stuck to the wall with tape that will someday peel the paint off. 5 Advice I Should Have Taken I’m not sure what to call it other than a vortex. I was driving on the highway and it started to snow, which is fine and I slowed down, but then I had to focus, to listen, I had to turn off the song at the good part. I sang the lyric anyway—don’t be my last strange encounter—creeping south on 77 at 25 mph, my voice trying to break the hypnosis of the snow coming down in a sucking spiral. My heartbeat roared under the sound of the engine and the wet tires and I wished I could catch up to the red taillights so far ahead. The anonymous tracks were already swallowed up white and something like dread came over me. I imagined my brakes locking my hands powerless on the steering wheel, bracing for the impact of the ditch, hoping my little hatchback wouldn’t flip over, that there wouldn’t be any blood or severe injury, that it wouldn’t take too long for anyone to find me because of the dark and the snow. My face flushed above the sound of the engine as I