Carrie Conners, originally from West Virginia, lives in Queens, NY and is an English professor at LaGuardia Community College-CUNY. Her first poetry collection, Luscious Struggle (BrickHouse Books, 2019), was a 2020 Paterson Poetry Prize Finalist. Her second collection, Species of Least Concern was a finalist for the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award (Main Street Rag, 2022). Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Bodega, Kestrel, Split Rock Review, RHINO, and The Monarch Review, among others. She is also the author of the book, Laugh Lines: Humor, Genre, and Political Critique in Late Twentieth Century American Poetry (University Press of Mississippi, 2022). To buy Carrie's books of wonderful prose poetry, see links and more poetry below.

Birbs

At dinner I catch myself chair swaying to the bass line of “Another One Bites the Dust.” This is a song birds would dance to on the internet. I believe in my bones I know what they like. Despite never owning a bird or even knowing their names. I know, I know, bad poet. I posted a pic of a striking bird family on my fire escape. My writer friend commented, OMG YOU HAVE AMERICAN KESTELS ON YOUR WINDOWSILL!!! I had almost labeled the post, Cool pigeons. I don’t know the names of trees either.

But I’ve always had a special bond with birds. Years ago at Tenney Park in Madison when it wasn’t winter, I’d go listen to the ducks lampoon the world so often that they’d waddle up and sit with me, though I never fed them. One let me pet its emerald neck. Just last week I took my writing class to Central Park to observe “nature” and went off on my own, the true reason for the trip. I’d had a bad day, department meeting, So you’re saying that the provost’s subcommittee on best practices for classroom inclusivity is by invitation only? Correct. I listened to a rat wheeze under a tree crotch, then spied a robin standing on a concrete path with its matchstick legs. We locked eyes. It cocked its head to the side and shat. I sighed, Exactly.

After dinner I googled “birds dancing to music” and saw a cockatoo headbanging its yellow mohawk while Freddie Mercury growled, strutting to the beat of the Same. Exact. Song. Now in meetings while colleagues debate the efficacy of rubrics used to evaluate student artifacts, I’ll smile. Daydream myself a modern St. Francis of Assisi who lives in the forest, or at least Central Park, with a plastic sack of Wonderbread and a boombox. My comrades and I listen to my mix of curated songs, bob our heads, strut and preen like our Queen on stage at Wembley Stadium.

Luscious Struggles: https://itascabooks.com/products/luscious-struggle-1

Species Of Least Concern: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/species-of-least-concern-carrie-conners/

Negotiations, Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel and United Steelworkers  of America 

5 pile into Martinelli’s boat of a Cadillac, crank the windows down, turn the radio up. They’re set to drive up to Pittsburgh from McMechen for negotiations with management. The company declared Chapter 11 in April of ’85 after the union refused to sign a lousy contract, took away grievance rights, so they all walked out. 60 days in and the press is talking, even the big papers and Sully knows there might be a photo op. He’s a sharp dresser, sporting a tight paisley polyester button-down, so bright your eyes water. It’s the kind of early summer day that makes you notice your own breath, skin, really look at other people. Martinelli’s lit up one of his cigarillos with the dashboard lighter, tapping ashes out the window. Sonofabitch, you lit me on fire! The sleeve of Sully’s shirt going up faster than a dried out Christmas tree. Big Sam smacks out Sully’s arm before he’s burned or shirtless. Everyone howls. Later, in front of the photographer for one of the Pittsburgh papers, Sully hides his disintegrated sleeve behind Big Sam. They’re all grinning into the camera from the beauty of the weather, Sully’s faux anger, the thrill of fighting for each other, and this time they won the day.

Luscious Struggles: https://itascabooks.com/products/luscious-struggle-1

Species Of Least Concern: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/species-of-least-concern-carrie-conners/

Heat Wave

Did you know this is a Pokestop? The girl in the company softball team jersey asks the bartender too loudly, drunk on two beers, an afternoon in the July sun, her first base hit of the season. The corner bar’s air-conditioning has energized the crowd, a giddy respite from the sticky heat, everyone seems to be laughing when a loud pop marks a caesura in the din, everyone jumps and puzzles, a champagne cork? a pricked balloon? when the bartender leaps over the bar and races into the street where two cars have just smashed into each other. Everyone leers out the windows, cheers when the bartender runs back in triumphant Nobody’s hurt, I called the police as if he was responsible. A firetruck arrives, the drunk girl on her knees on her barstool to catch a glimpse of the scene, her friend’s arms circling her waist like a hula hoop, hoping to catch her if she topples, Holy shit that firefighter looks like hipster Fabio! and he does, razor cheekbones, brown hair to his shoulders, vintage tattoos on the ropes of his forearms, an anchor, a pierced heart, wears the dour pout of a young man who’s read too much Kerouac, laments not being around for the 50s. It’s hot and this isn’t a fire so he’s stripped down to his navy t-shirt and baggy yellow fire pants, red suspenders holding them up Is this a Magic Mike flash mob? The girl on her knees maneuvers to stand on the bar without knocking over drinks, her friend pulls her down to earth, the rest are fat and bald and everyone smiles, grateful for suspense, relief, and beauty, orders another round.

Luscious Struggles: https://itascabooks.com/products/luscious-struggle-1

Species Of Least Concern: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/species-of-least-concern-carrie-conners/