The Lesbian: poems by Mary Meriam. Number 1 in Volume Four of our limited-edition Summer Kitchen Chapbook Series, now available at summer’s end.

Cover image: antique quilting fabric, Pennsylvania. Series design by Ron Mohring.

Published: September 21, 2016 [49 copies]
23 pages
$9.00

Mary Meriam‘s poetry collections include The Countess of Flatbroke, The Poet’s Zodiac, The Lillian Trilogy, and Lady of the Moon. She is cofounder of the journal Lavender Review and of Headmistress Press. Conjuring My Leafy Muse (Book 2 of The Lillian Trilogy) was nominated for the 2015 Poets’ Prize. Girlie Calendar (Book 3 of The Lillian Trilogy) was selected for the 2016 American Library Association Over the Rainbow List. Mary’s poems have appeared in 12 anthologies, including most recently, Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters (Penguin Random House, 2015), and in Adrienne, American Arts Quarterly, American Life in Poetry, Angle, Cimarron Review, Eyewear, Journal of Lesbian Studies, KIN, Literary Imagination, Measure, Mezzo Cammin, North Dakota Quarterly, OCHO, Poetry Northeast, Rattle, The Evansville Review, and The New York Times.

In Nineteenth-Century America 

Women left to themselves
Found kindred spirits in each other
They banded together
And fostered heart values

Found kindred spirits in each other
Found the cool evening breeze on the porch
And fostered heart values
And violets in secret gardens

Found the cool evening breeze on the porch
And petticoats in a slow blue-cotton dance
And violets in secret gardens
And clover in her long curly hair 

And petticoats in a slow blue-cotton dance
And a circle of quick women dancers 
And clover in her long curly hair 
Found music filling the limbs of the hours

And a circle of quick women dancers 
And twilight lovers entwined with each other 
Found music filling the limbs of the hours 
And lockets on necklaces under their blouses 

And twilight lovers entwined with each other 
They banded together 
And lockets on necklaces under their blouses 
Women left to themselves 

_______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______

• Purchase your copy here: only 24 copies are available from the press!