Somewhere in San Paulo

Kathy Kubik

a dog barks, the owner yells
"Marco, Marco!"

She smokes her Virginia Slim.
The ash an inch long.
Her blunt nails match her hair,
except one is magenta, the other blonde.

Her nail color and lips are cut from the same
shade of red.
She inhales.
Her movements rigid.

Somewhere in San Paulo
it's dark. Doors slam.
Claustrophobia sets in like a loosened belt.
On the edge of the city,
margaritas are served in salt glasses.

The stars match the number of scars on her arms,
legs, face, ears.

The earth curls,
roots twist through tunnels.
Unborn streets spilt into two cities
both inaccessible.

Somewhere in San Paulo
she thrusts the cigarette
into her mouth often
to avoid suffocation.

It's pointless to expect news
in San Paulo.

Kathy Kubik is the author of two chapbooks, Chrysalis and Songs in Red. Her work was selected for the 2006 Her Mark Calendar through Woman Made Gallery and she recently placed first in the Frieda Stein Fenster Memorial Award for Poetry. Her work has appeared in a number of publications, including The Mississippi Review, Hiss Quarterly, Poems Niederngasse, Lily, Voices Magazine, T-zero Xpandazine, SaucyVox, ERWA, CleanSheets, The Blueline Review, Citizen32 and the recently released Women of the Web anthology (Sun Rising Press). When she's not writing poems, she is scribbling away on her first novel.