FOR A MINUTE

I was a wild child
In the empty café,
Miguel introduced me
as a daughter of Third Street.

(He might have meant the poetry
but more likely meant the corners.)

I hid words in brick walls. 

A thousand stories 
died in my arms,
each track 
an aborted symphony.

Tonight, I linger
in the back of the room.
Listen to long-haired poets
who don’t remember me.

I’ve died in abandoned buildings.
Been saved by junkies and dope fiends,
baptized in fire hydrants, blessed by thieves.

I carried poems in back pockets,
my arms scarred like the train.

Poets’ eyes glitter madly.
Voices like junkyard velvet.
Just for a minute, I’m in love.

Puma Perl is an award-winning poet, writer, and journalist. She is the author of two chapbooks, Belinda and Her Friends and Ruby True, both published by erbacce-press, and three full-length collections, knuckle tattoos (erbacce-press, UK, 2010), Retrograde (great weather for MEDIA, NYC, 2014), and Birthdays Before and After (Beyond Baroque Books, 2019). She is the founder, host and curator of Puma’s Pandemonium, which launched at the Bowery Electric in 2012 and brings poetry together with rock and roll. She has performed across the United States and in Europe, both solo and with the great musicians who make up her band, Puma Perl and Friends. Her photographs of artists, poets, and musicians are frequently used for album covers, fliers, and headshots, and have been published in literary journals and newspapers. As a journalist, she’s been awarded two honorable mentions and one first place commendation by the New York Press Association for her work on The Village. Currently, you can find her weekly column, “Writing the Apocalypse,” in ChelseaCommunityNews.com. She is a lifelong New York City resident and lives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.