The Literary Review
If I were a beast
I want to gnaw your arms
into clean bones,
licking off the fresh meat
until I am satisfied
with the curious bloodletting;
the marrow is most
succulent
in hot, tropical places.
I’ll growl & warn the
inhabitants of the
rain forest of my prowess,
my undying hunger.
In this reality, I wait for Winter,
quiet, warmed-up rooms
& moments when the geniuses
come out of their hiding places,
& I savor their ideas, flooding
my brain, lighting up the filament
as I smell fresh & new juicy sentences.
- Carrie Magness Radna
If I ended up in California
If I ended up in California,
marrying a guy I knew in Bethany College,
I would drive millions of miles
along the coast, visiting many wineries
& baking my skin raw. The wildfires
would drown us out—the beaches
are not cleaned; they’re full of glass & plastics
the waves have crashed over, & the mountains
are not very far away. L.A. is still fake,
full of would-be stars & stargazers.
My poems would be full of stardust,
sci-fi creatures & perfect sunsets.
But this dude & I broke up
before the perfect weather reeled me in;
I traveled East towards New York,
& settled there amid skyscrapers,
subways & clouded-over skies.
Such electricity!
- Carrie Magness Radna
Golden boy
Looking in on the good life
I might never have found—
You never had to wait for anything;
you received all the things
you have wanted,
& now, this weekend
I’m getting a taste
of the sweet life
from your chocolate-covered
silver spoons.
Boy, how could you
live with such decadence,
without blinking once?
I had to back order
my first bed mattress
from IKEA,
& pay for extra gas,
for my friend to drive us
to Elizabeth, NJ
to pick it up when I moved to NYC
while your Mommy
took you to the fancy mattress store.
Without sweating, she paid $3000
for a bamboo-based, hypoallergenic topper
with memory foam & beautiful linens
(so you won’t sweat as you sleep)
but I’m sweating now,
realizing how
everything must had cost you,
& you could never
truly be yourself
They planned your whole life
since the very first minute
you were born—
& I’ve been on my own
since I graduated my first college,
working hard for everything,
but my life is completely mine,
& my Target spoons work just fine.
- Carrie Magness Radna
Belize
The heart of the ocean
doesn’t always contain gold;
the multicolored coral
is full of swimming life.
We left the rain forest behind
& we followed the river
to the tall temple,
built more than a hundred feet high.
It’s open to the elements
outside, the flowered jungle, for hundreds of years.
After we climbed its roof,
the vistas sparkled as a reward & response.
The night sky is full of gold stars
but today’s white sands have captured
our imagination—music rings
from steel drums as the waves
lap upon the beach, lulling us
to sleep as the sun sets softly.
- Carrie Magness Radna
Floral district
I saw forgotten
blushing petals
blown away, outside,
upon the graffiti-
tagged storeroom’s
walls & walkways
on West 28th Street,
hours after closing time.
I wish I was there
when the flower shops
were open in the
early morning,
when their perfume
drifted outside &
freshly danced with
the passersby,
coaxing & smiling:
“Come in!
See all this beauty
in the flesh”—
& I would
be tempted to stay
in their
miniature
gardens
for a while,
as a curious
but knowing
Eve or Persephone,
Perhaps
they would say
I was as
beautiful
as their
blooms?
- Carrie Magness Radna
When the music plays, the jungle grows
Radiohead’s song “Nude”
breaks me open inside
like a holy golden egg.
When I close my eyes—I see green leaves.
It will rain today.
I went walking in the morning;
the clouds were intense.
Today, my head doesn’t feel
like rain; it feels like an
overgrown jungle, too full of life.
I want the sun back—
I want to stretch out in bed, nude,
to melt with the golden light. With you—
- Carrie Magness Radna
