J. P. Dancing Bear

THE SATIN TUNING FORK for Carolina Smart you are banging on the satin tuning fork: again: the sound that starts the band to playing: again: you preparing your wedding march: again: the groom is Alec Baldwin: again: he is impatiently waiting to get married: again: he has built his specialty massive pink cake: again: where you and he ice-dance on the frosting: again: you are both gliding through the sheen of each other’s satin: again: skating the words I love you in icing: again: you both throw a snowball of pink at the other’s face: again: the ring-bearer ’s stuck on the third tier of the cake: again: she’s crying in her Bo Peep dress and tussles: again: you glide in closer to the center and double death-spiral: again: frosting flying out onto the spectators and judges: again: the satin fork rings out its tune like an alarm: again: you wake up with the taste of strawberry frosting: again       - - - - - -

J. P. Dancing Bear's most recent collection of poems is Conflicted Light (SalmonPoetry, 2008).  His poems have been published in DIAGRAM, Third Coast, Natural Bridge, Verse Daily and others.  He is editor for the American Poetry Journal and Dream Horse Press.  His next book is Inner Cities of Gulls (SalmonPoetry, 2010).