ABOUT Cynthia J. Harper:
The late Cynthia J. Harper’s books include Ruffled Socks (MacOne Press), Border Crossing (Pudding House Publications) and Snow in South Texas (Pecan Grove Press). The poems in Border Crossing were her favorites from her master’s thesis at Antioch University. Two of her poems “Chickens” and “Hanging the Wash” were selected by the Poetry Society of America for their "Poetry in Motion" promotion and were posted on the buses in Austin and Houston. “Hanging the Wash” was selected for PSA’s highly selective print volume of poems from the buses.
The chicken to the left was sculpted by Brother Cletus Behlman, S.M. and was in her front yad.
Lipstick
by Cynthia J. Harper
ISBN: 978-1-931247-73-3 $15
“Cynthia Harper has always written with glistening, wry perception. Her words feel fresh from the earth, eruptions of wild blooming and reckoning — her narratives rich with quirks and jolts. She is a keenly original, indelible poet, treasured forever by her readers and friends.”
—Naomi Shihab Nye
"Cynthia Harper was a good friend to Pecan Grove Press. Her wit and humor shine through her poems and take a gift to everyne who reads them. She will be missed. " —H. Palmer Hall
NOTE: The lipstick blottings on the cover of the book were contributed by students at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas (the home of Pecan Grove Press).
Lipstick
On my mother’s fifty-fifth
birthday she said, I’m
over the speed limit.
I don’t need to be polite
to another snotty salesgirl
as long as I live.The Estee Lauder
woman dripping rouge
her arms covered
in cheap gold bracelets
was the first hapless
victim. No dear, she
said looking down her
long pointed nose,
that just isn’t you.Mother plopped
her purse down,
looked right in
the old gal’s
eyes and replied,
I’ll make that
decision, dearie.
I’ll be wearing
it not you.When one of
her friends asked
what shade it was
she simply said,
Liberation Red.
Copyright © Pecan
Grove Press,
1997-2003
For further information contact
H. Palmer
Hall.
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Internet Navigating
Most recent revision
November 11, 2003
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