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      May 20, 2016Fun with XeroxAmber Shockley

      It all started when Johnny lifted 
      her, laughing, onto the glass, 
      and as the green beam
      scanned her ass he kissed her,
      still laughing, their mouths
      smashed and shoulders shaking.
      He thumbed the print-out from
      the tray and adjusted the contrast
      on the machine, making gleeful
      beeps with his forefinger then
      telling her, Hop up there again.
      She What if my ass gets cancer?
      even as she turned backward,
      raised her skirt, which bunched
      and tightened over her thighs.
      He What if your pussy gets herpes
      from you-know-who? and they both
      knew-who, and she’d flushed at that,
      because she was dating Todd
      who she didn’t like because Johnny 
      was dating Angela from another 
      department at the time
      and she’d flushed again, 
      her ass warm, her cunt hovering 
      over the inner workings of the copier, 
      thinking of Angela who wears silk 
      blouses and would never 
      do this with Johnny or anyone else,
      who would never have herpes.
      She knows how mean grown 
      men can be when they turn, in a flash, 
      back to boyish. Still, now,
      even the whir of the microwave oven
      turns her on, the dull thud rumble
      of the dryer, the soft click of the toaster—
      any otherwise cold, inanimate thing
      made intimate by electric current.

      from #51 - Spring 2016

      Amber Shockley

      “I remember the first time someone called me a ‘feminazi.’ I was in high school. He was my art teacher. I was stunned because the implication was so far from everything I believed, and still believe, which is that women should be allowed the social freedom to do any damn thing they want to do—from baking cookies to building engines. I don’t care if a woman wants to wear an apron or a pantsuit or a baby (I recently found out, with enough fabric, this is possible). I just don’t care. My hope is that my poetry doesn’t put any constraints on women, but that it shows them in their diversity.”

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