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“Arithmetic,” “Ecru,” and “She Craves A State”

 By Fran LeMoine

____________________

Arithmetic

The smell of sharpened pencils,

Hard-to-remember symbols

and tables,

wrong answers

and a couple of slaps.

No wonder nothing adds up.

Ecru

He'd been drinking for a couple of days.

When he awoke,

he noticed the stain on the gray rug

("ecru," he thinks she called it)

The stain on the carpet

formed a long and lovely necklace

of rubies, milk, ashes and orange peels.

He knew she wouldn't like it.

She Craves a State

She craves a state

absent of

mindless longing.

She wants to die.

But not the way the Buddhists mean.

 ____________________

Frances LeMoine: a.) Lives in New Hampshire; b.) Earns money by writing descriptions for an auction house's monthly catalog; c.) Has had two collections of poetry published, most recently The Moon Makes No Difference To Me (Asterius Press, 2002); and d.) Is working on a collection of short fiction that's turning into a novel.