Two Poems by Christina Strigas

Decades of Art

I can lie like a jazz singer

on a sultry bed,

in a torrid nightclub.

It's the 20’s, sliding inside humid

Chicago bars.

I am a little girl, wonderfully sacred

and scared of consequences.

Nothing can be wrapped up as perfectly

as pink bodies, naked in the daylight

wet and sweltering on wrinkled sheets.

Whispering red sweet secrets, like candy                

on sky blue Sunday mornings.

I can lay on the grass after a music festival

free from law, handcuffs,

rules. It’s the 70’s

we made it

out alive. We saw Jim, Jimmy,

Janet at the hotel. Patti was doing

a poetry reading in NYC.

We were the best observers

the weakest artists.

No year, and nothing to do but straddle the centuries.

No Vacancy

I slept under crumbled bridges,

car lights reflecting pothole prisms,

When I lost my soul to the

gods of: drugs

wars

alcohol

dead poets

sharp philosophers

listless writers.

Our glowing graffiti—illegal,

polaroids, opioids

a tower of glossy tabloids—

Past inflated—dated bottles

majestic little lanterns

erupting enlightened.

You filled in a spotlight for me,

In neon bars I slaved in,

smoky

local

emptied, lonely rebel—

just another female poet, a fitted slave,

I became your Metaxa maid.

No more niceties.

As the antihero you were made to be:

under a highway bridge

ashamed

stuffed inside a glass pillow, evoking

cult leaders.

A revelation I named Vacant Lot.

Christina Strigas is a trilingual poet, raised by Greek immigrants, and has written three poetry books. Her latest, Love & Vodka, has been featured by CBC Books in, “Your Ultimate Canadian Poetry List: 68 Poetry Collections Recommended by You.”

She is currently working on her fourth upcoming poetry book, Love & Metaxa.

In her spare time, Christina enjoys foreign cinema, reading the classics, and cooking traditional Greek recipes that have been handed down from her grandmother.

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