Impromptu Poetry-Off at Happy Dog Last Night

Contestants: Bridget and Jeremiah
Topics: chosen by assorted patrons and bartender
Note: not to be judged on spelling or grammar or my inability to read Jeremiah's handwriting.

Topic One: Chickpeas

Jeremiah:

Fallafel a Ancient
Ongoing tradition
The weight of interminable
centuries and here we ate
putting the same thing
in our mouths,
Fuel for wars,
secular, religious, internecine
stronger than steel
Armies traveling Napoleonic
on their bellies.

Bridget: winner

The grinding
The mush against the edge
Of the bowl
Smells like lemons
And young boys running in sunshine
And sand.

It coats the nostril
With garlic
And seawater.

Topic Two: PJ Harvey and Elliot Smith

Jeremiah: winner

Goblin Mouth and
unlimited teeth
Mourn all you want
unknowable feminine traumas
-I?
I see your glorious witch face and think:
Kiss Me?
And don't bite
too hard
or do.

Bridget:

Elliot Smith
Did not actually stab himself
In the heart.
He was murdered.
On purpose?
Is losing soft breast
and direction
An accomplice to assasination?

Topic Three: Gilda Radner

Jeremiah:

Emblamatic halo
The cursive hair
matching tone-
becoming character.
Becoming -
An act.
The act of becoming and who?
The reckless pleasurable panoply
A parade
And a person.
How long?
Long.

Bridget: winner

There's only so much coke
One girl can do
Before she starts to doubt
Her success against the
Fat Men.

But in her mirror
At fifteen
With braces and a shirt
With horses on it,
She was the star.