Lizzy Speare and the Cursed Tomb

hello all,
the talented ms. Ally Malinenko has a middle grade novel due out in September
called Lizzy Speare and the Cursed Tomb.  Here's an interview with Ms. Malinenko
on Jen McConnel's cool blog Crafting Magic. 

poemS (kinda) of the day 08.29.12

i know i haven't posted much this month....sorry....been a long cruel summer.
anyway i have a poem up at Misfits' Miscellany which it would be cool if you checked out.

....and here's one for today.

thanks
jg

chuck

there was a group of us

in this daycare during the summer

from sun up until the evening

it was breaking our parents to keep us in there

a vicious cycle of work and bills and daycare

keeping everyone poor

but it was daycare or the mercy of the streets

the woman who ran it

sent us to an indoor pool every afternoon

there was nothing to do there

but belly flops off of the diving board

or piss in the garbage cans in the men’s room

wait for the summer to end

there was one kid there, chuck,

who never seemed to be with a parent

at first he swam laps alone

but then he started joining us daycare kids

playing marco polo or keep away

on breaks from swimming chuck would take us

out onto the back lawn

he had bags of sour cream and onion potato chips

and two-liter bottles of soda

he’d pass the chips and soda around to all of us kids

while we plotted more water games

more belly flops off of the diving boards

sometimes he’d drag these huge foam mats out

and break dance on the concrete

us daycare kids liked chuck

we’d talk about him all morning

and on the ride to the pool

we’d talk about chuck while we pissed into garbage cans

we couldn’t wait to sit outside eating the chips

and drinking the soda

while the other daycare kids looked on in anger

chuck was cool for a while

but then he began to change

he started withholding chips and soda from some us

we’d sit there like fools while chuck ate alone

or he’d bring other kids along

and they’d start bullying us into giving them money

even though none of us had dime

chuck and his pals would single us out in the pool

they’d splash us roughly

or toss us around the stale, warm chlorinated water

a group of us got busted for pissing in the garbage cans

we knew that it was chuck who’d ratted us out

we had to spend a month cleaning garbage cans

and picking up trash outside in the summer heat

chuck would toss his potato chips bags on the lawn

and call us over to pick them up

he cornered each one of us while we worked

told us we owed him for all of his hospitality

he made up some outrageous figures

us kids at the daycare started to hate chuck

we never talked about him in the mornings

or on the way to the pool

we tried to figure out a way to get him back

but we had nothing

the last time i saw chuck i was chasing some kid

around the pool

the kid went outside and over to chuck for protection

but i decided the hell with it and stormed after him

only i ran through a closed glass window

and it shattered everywhere

as i laid there dazed and covered and glass and blood

as adults came running from every direction

screaming bloody murder, calling for an ambulance

i made eye contact with chuck

he just shook his head at me as if disappointed

like i hadn’t quite repaid my debt

then he lifted a big bottle of soda to his mouth

and drank.

                                    

poem of the day 08.07.12

torrents

eating tacos

i watch the rain fall

in torrents

and the people screaming

and shouting

outside in the burst

it occurs to me

that it never rains

normally

anymore

the sky just opens up

and we all take a pounding

as shit from the sewers

bubbles over

and swirls toward the river

until the clouds part

and the sun comes back

to scorch

this tortured

crawling

earth.