Winehouse Brandy

As published by the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal Summer 2022

Amy invades
takes up cocktail hour residence 
Soft as shadows she casts silhouettes
tightly cut into shape by her X-acto knife voice
a dollop of dissipation floats in the refrain
She is the hors d’oeuvre served on a Ritz cracker in the local pub
Defiant, her lyrics undulate
sassy sad angry
 
Amy’s brave wise cracks
Every word snaps
Because her mouth forms the sound before it emerges
Knifes in
Warbles out
Some verses click, they are the essence of castanets spoken
How does she know 
exactly when to breathe
exactly how to stay 
just ahead of the beat?
 
Confident
Vulnerable
In her words “laughed at by the gods”
 
Teasing her hair up just before the show
lining her eyes in long strokes like a Pharaoh
She is sex honest on stage
Brandishing belly she pours her frail brute strength down inside your head like Alambic Brandy, and you smack your lips
Ah
that burns so smooth, pour me another
 
I stretch and relax
The first verse a frisky kitten 
jumps into my reverie and tears through it
emerging as a bobcat
carrying in her jaws the broken limp prey
of yesterday’s arrangements
I acquiesce to her genius

To order a copy of Summer 2022 issue, click here:  http://www.0s-1s.com/new-magazines-iii/hal-37-1