Puma Perl

belinda

belinda’s long slow features make young men burn

raised on concrete, they imagine holding her in

country hammocks

pushing her on swings

corner boys invite her to the movies, they take her hand

tall boys with hurt eyes follow her, ask to walk her home

tito’s mother left him in a shelter when he was three

bobby’s parents died of the same rotten disease

angel’s uncles took him in the back room

all the tough boys wear pain behind wary eyes

belinda lazily allows their attentions in her hard-hearted way

she barely remembers her childhood

there was a kitchen chair, she’d stand on it to reach the stove

her baby sister held it steady so wouldn’t fall off while she cooked

two little girls alone in a tenement room

filled with fire escape dreams

belinda lives six flights up, she lives in heaven

she painted stars on the ceiling, suns on the wall

there are locks on every window and door

keys are her diamonds, encircling her thin caramel wrists…

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On Puma's Poetry:

This chapbook, the first by Puma Perl, is an exceptionally real depiction of life in a part of New York in the last millennium, where heroin or alcohol abuse is an integral part of life, where life is cold but full of a transient warmth, where hearts are larger than you might expect...Puma Perl is an extraordinary poet, she captures a feel and sense of place exquisitely.

  -David McLean

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