Jeff Crandall
You Ask Why I'm Not
Romantic
Truth is, I was once. Romance was the
guts
held like yellow treasure beneath my hard
exterior. I scuttled the lit depths
of love’s blue seas, laughed when the rough surf
roared,
combed the soft beds for sighs and winks. I loved
each new wave. But I backed into a trap
and soon found myself under a steel lid,
numb, the heat rising, clawing to escape
out of another potboiler when two
fat hands spooned me up, scraped my insides clean,
lobbed all that romance crap to the trash. Thrown
on a plate, I was left with this broken
shell, pale belly exposed,
all my sweet, cloud-
soft flesh, and — look who’s picking at me now.
Bio:
Jeff Crandall received a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing with an emphasis on poetry from the University of Washington. His poetry has been published in journals across the country, including The Seattle Review, Cutbank, Cream City Review and The Southern Poetry Review. His manuscript “Clear Cut” was a finalist in the National Poetry Series. His award-winning book of poems, The Grief Pool, is published by Firestorm Press (Seattle). He is a founding editor and president of the board for Floating Bridge Press in Seattle, and makes his living as an artist, combining poetry with glass.
