Ruby Slippers

A collection of poems & short stories which are also available on CD with musical accompaniment.  Click here for CD and to hear samples)

English as a Second Language

if any of this sounds
like a rough translation
please know
there are no words
for these things
in any language

this is a translation
as sure as you're born
translated from unspeakable silence
into English
English as a second language

our first language
must be silence
all our best work
is done in silence
and our best work
may not survive translation.

Lost

I wrote a poem and then
I think I lost it
the poem was about loss

and now
all that is left is me
and I am lost
so lost
if you find a piece of paper
sort of crumpled
small and scribbled
with purple numbers on the other side
that's mine
and if you find me
small and crumpled
with words spilling out all over
please find me
and let me know


Complete list of poems and short stories:
English as a Second Language ~ May Questions Fill the Air Where I Have Been
If Jesus Had a Girlfriend ~ I Love You, Susan ~ Bill Clarke
I Dreamed I Saw My Cat Last Night ~ You Tell Me I'm Beautiful
Barmaids ~ Bats ~ Freaky Paul ~ News at Ten ~ Sacred Whorehouse of the Moon
Strange Cathedral ~ Lost ~ I Know When You Got Married
The Beauty of an Older Woman (for Diana Vreeland) ~ Cut Flowers
I Look for You ~ My Voice ~ I Thought I Saw You in a Book
Beautiful Darkness



Click here to go back to main Poetry page.

The poetry/story booklets are $10 each or both for $15 plus $2.50 for shipping.

To order, send check/money order to:

Jessica Radcliffe
HIGH BOHEMIA
1000 Bourbon Street #252
New Orleans, LA 70116

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