Sine Wave by Catherine Lee | ISSUE TWENTY ONE: Smaller, Yes, ty

Sine Wave

Catherine Lee

Manic:
Different the magnitude, or is it amplitude?
of kinship with a helpful soul whose
actions make continuous expansive joy
from fixing wailing automotive fanbelt
with a simple bar of soap
to lending music, movies or that
texted sympathetic ear of hope,
all this accumulates
odd sort of intimacy licensed us
in width, length, duration, breadth

Depressive:
Deep knowledge he has of me
the sort that pierces a thermometer
into meat of my rejections
his included.
Is he the one? Is any one whose
genial gestures provide nourishment
that merely teases chronic hunger?
Is his the measure I desire?
No offering of flesh accepted?
Dread attraction. Crave
distraction. To be someone else
someone’s other...

Catherine Lee founded/ran Studio Red Top in 1978, a loft, later nonprofit where she produced music events. In that adult playpen, Lee began reading her poetry percussively with improvising musicians. Lee reads solo at poetry events and sits in “on poem” at jam sessions. Lee also creates multimedia archived on Soundcloud (jazz-cat-lee audio) and VIMEO (jazzovation video).

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