Elizabeth Treadwell was born in Oakland, California in 1967, of Cherokee, English, Irish and unknown heritage. Her previous books include the 2004 poetry collection Chantry and Lilyfoil +3. Treadwell's work appears in a number of anthologies including 100 Days, Bay Poetics, and Writing Under the Influence: America's New Women Poets & the Generation That Inspires Them. She serves as director of Small Press Traffic Literary Arts Center in San Fransisco. She also edits SPT's magazine, Traffic. Her book Cornstarch Figurine was recently released by Dusie (2006).
Pro Model Tells Story
it's not like i'm attached
to all these camel-
floppy (big buttons),
short & tight (big
buttons): i mean i would give them just
give them
to any girl off the bus,
stairs tar black corduroy
and the driver, her relaxed
hair, wide-wheels through left
turn signals in deep, slovenly
rain, i'd give her one.
it's just when i get stuck across
town in the rain by that fish
shop overlooking the ocean,
whole rows of these
fish shops and it's raining then
i do need a coat as i wait like
my pig-tailed chewiing lips debated
for mother to pick up but
it's so far away and there's
nothing worse than your
teenager having some
job where you hafta go
fetch her half across
but when you get a large green
newsmelly plush, well you still
don't want to be at the
beck-&-call of some teenage
& your progeny's buying a little sportscar like a girl in a film,
even a European
& she just wonders, mother
Victoria, oh Victoria!—the map of
where i was,
please
He gave narrative, tenderness,
solicitude & doubt. photos of the two
of us labelled everywhere. I walk through shelves and streets of