— Gabriela Marie Milton – Working on Wounds I Healed (@shortprose1) May 14, 2022
On Saturday June 4, at 9 am CT – 10 am ET (USA) join me and Ingrid on Twitter Space for a lively discussion and updates on our anthology Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women. By saving and clicking on the link below you can listen to the discussion even if you do not have a Twitter account. Please share the link with those you think may be interested. I can’t wait to talk to those of you who can attend.
Head of a Woman’ by Jean Jacques Henner, Public Domain
Flash Fiction by Gabriela Marie Milton
My name is Gabriela. Papa used to call me Marie.
One night the moon stretched in our bed, its lips sultry, its breasts soft like two humongous cotton candies bought by the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round Carousel. That night your cascading laughter made all naked desires hide under the bed. I tried to drag them out. I couldn’t.
Later, head on your shoulder I looked at the stars through the broken ceiling, my eyes plagued by an inexorable yearning to prove my existence. I don’t know why. Those who want to prove their existence live in the realm of the inexistent. They are bizarre people who write love letters to themselves trying to deceive others. Any trick is a cry for recognition. Any cry for recognition is a basic assertion of impotence.
What was I doing? Oh, I was trying to get into my red dress. I couldn’t get it over my hips. The humidity of the night must have made it stick to my skin. Did you laugh again? Stop. Put your shirt on. We’re going out.
Anyway, I was talking about the absence of existence itself which always leads to sorcery. The skin of an eel caught in the spring, dried, stuffed with rose petals and rosemary, chopped and hidden behind the head of the bed. A night spent in that bed will haunt the two lovers for life. Like I haunt you.
How did you call me? Why did you use that name? Yes, it is my first name, but nobody uses it. Everyone calls me Gabriela.
Stop calling me Anastasia. I am not resurrected yet. I don’t know who Anastasia is. I’ve never met her. But don’t get fooled. That doesn’t make her less dangerous than me.
If only I could put my palm into yours for one single sunset when the autumn smells like corn & the eyelids of the sea cast spells on the cheeks of the stars At the end of the shore milk foam washes the feet of the children
you, my adulterated love I light your fire blindfolded I seek a buyer for all my sins a sunset lingers on my dress October #hesitate-s the walls are gray the music plays delighting at your feet chants of prayers from my faraway Corinth#vss365#poem#poetrytwitter#poetrypic.twitter.com/m7tC9eRXC2
image: Gabriela Marie Milton, somewhere in Southern Europe
Poem
open the window let me feel the #wind which blew when I was born open you palms let me eat the fruits of the soil which fed me first open your heart let me breathe the poetry of the sunsets when roses sleep & church bells toll over the land where I was born#vss365#poetrypic.twitter.com/Nxc1TXNhFa
Portrait d’amour – love poem by Gabriela Marie Milton
Flowers open like fresh young lips. I avert my mind from the memory of your arms which tries to drag me inside an abyss of naked love; a love blessed with the force of the mistral & the sensuality of linked fingers under the moonlight.#Portrait d’amour. #vss365pic.twitter.com/Kva49R48oo
Our sun ripped apart by the gallop of an Arabian horse. Sand & blood. Memories of our Sahara: the Sahara in which fate played games. Spaces, times, light crawl upon each other like flapping fish in a net. The enigma of to be. The simplicity of me. I #miss you. #vss365#poempic.twitter.com/XtPMANNis9
— Gabriela Marie Milton (@shortprose1) July 22, 2021
Poetry Contest
My Dear Readers,
To honor the community who have supported my writing journey and my work I plan to have a poetry contest in September. I will ask you to write one poem inspired by a piece from my #1 Amazon Best-Selling poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow and to list the name of the piece that inspired your submission. A number of poems from Woman: Splendor and Sorrow can be found on this blog. There will be prizes. More info about the contest coming up in September.
MasticadoresUSA update
Thanks to Juan, MasticadoresUSA has now a new beautiful theme. There are several new posts on the site. For me MasticadoresUSA is a labor of love. It is a way of giving back to the WP community. Thank you to everyone who supports this site.
You can read the work of your fellow poets and follow the site here.
Love to everyone.
#1 Amazon Best-Selling Poetry Collection (August 9&10) Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton:
Farewell to you Andalucía, to gypsy moons & to the music of your breasts. Frantic nights, wounds that never heal. White shirts, heated bodies, pulsing veins, rhythmic blood. A woman wears her wedding band around her neck. #Farewell to you my matador Te amo para siempre #vss365pic.twitter.com/ZQooDZXons
— Gabriela Marie Milton (@shortprose1) July 28, 2021
Updates on Woman: Splendor and Sorrow
Amazon US – on August 4 my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow was in the top 17 new release bestsellers for poetry by women. Number 16 Louise Glück who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. Running right behind her like on August 2. Humbled beyond words.
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Amazon Ca – Today, August 6 my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow is in the top #19 new release bestsellers for poetry by women in Canada. Again humbled beyond words.
My dear followers, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind support.
I have an indefeasible desire to make a fetish of the loves that agonize under the temple I am prepared to dance at your feasts to be anointed by the grace of tears I am neither a gift nor something you can keep I am the syllable forgotten on your lip #vss365#prepare#poempic.twitter.com/TvRhO4Ot4S
— Gabriela Marie Milton (@shortprose1) April 1, 2021
