Two Poems from Kendall A. Bell

This happy ever after

The bags I filled with clothes,
piled in giant plastic mountains
down the narrow hallway
were an impressive sight to her.
She took a picture with her camera phone.

We stood in the kitchen one last time,
and looked out the large, bay window and
admired the sight of a car filled
with boxes stacked with precision.

We raised our half filled beer bottles
and toasted to a job well done,
a union divided with such care.
Pressed wet, alcohol buzzed lips
and laughed about one last fuck
for old times sake.

The empty bottles grew around the sink
and we shared an inebriated dance
around a kitchen that was now hers,
not mine.
Dirtied the kitchen table with lust,
and talked until midnight
promising not to call each other
in the morning, or ever again.



Birdcage

Your name and your face hits
magazine after magazine, and every
online news story has something to say
about your latest adventures in romance
or apartment design.
Like the story about how
you're getting a giant birdcage
installed in your apartment with a
telescope inside.

I don't understand the birdcage.

I understand the sentiment
in your songs that drag me in
when I try so hard to ignore you.

I never was a teenaged girl,
so why do I care so much about the
teardrops on your guitar or your
t-shirts and sneakers and ridiculously
large glasses in that video?

I care so much that I would gladly volunteer
to kick Kanye West's ass for you.

Would you be upset to know that I've
downloaded most of your songs for free?

If you'd like to go out for a coffee
or maybe a bite to eat in your birdcage,
I'll promise to pay full price for that
deluxe edition of "Fearless" once my
next paycheck clears.


Kendall A. Bell is a native of Bergen County, NJ who transplanted to Burlington County in early 2001. His poetry deals with the frustration of everyday life, teetering dangerously on sanity's edge and the hope of better days. His work has appeared in numerous print and online journals, most recently Decompression and Scythe. He was nominated for Sundress Publications' Best of the Net collection in 2007 and 2009. His current chapbook, his eleventh, is called The Forgotten. He is president and a co-founding member of the Quick And Dirty Poets, founder and co-editor of the online journal Chantarelle's Notebook and the publisher/editor of Maverick Duck Press. His website is www.kendallabell.com and his chapbooks are available through www.maverickduckpress.com. He is currently working on a new manuscript.

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