Mannequin Envy
quarterly journal of poetic and visual art
Featured Artist:
Theresa Pfarr
More artwork by:
Cecilia Ferreira
This link will take you to our "old" site. I am still working on transferring all of Doug's files. You will have to use your browser's navigation buttons to return to the current issue.
Holly Day
Letter to Emek
can you still see yourself
in your paintings? Or is it all
commissioned up-and-down strokes, automatic
order-filling, someone else's head
in your own
choosing your colors and you
are not the 16-year-old I barely got to know
do you ever
see me in these letters, these poems
scribbled on napkins before rushing to work
wadded up in my pockets found only
weeks later and I
did not write them and I don't know
who did
Fusion
it's some 15th century obsession
that can easily be explained away
but I can't shake the feeling, the strangest impression
that at some point, I turned into a bird
when I close my eyes I can feel
my feet leave the ground, just up on my toes
the wind pulls my body and tugs at my hair
and the wings almost rip themselves free from
my skin
but I think maybe I'm staying here
out of some guilt, obligations, I'm keeping
both feet firm on the ground
when the kids are all grown and my husband
is dead
just watch, I'm telling you—I can fly
Bio: Holly Day’s newest books, Music Theory for Dummies and Shakira will be in stores mid-2007. Her poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have most recently appeared in January, Philadelphia Poets, and California Quarterly. She currently works as a reporter and a writing instructor in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and lives with her two children and husband.
