CATWISE CLOCK

FEATURED FEMME:
LANA BELLA
AUTHOR BIO: A Pushcart nominee, Lana Bella is an author
of two chapbooks, Under My Dark (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2016) and
Adagio (Finishing Line Press, forthcoming), has had poetry and fiction
featured with over 270 journals, 2River, California Quarterly, Chiron
Review, Columbia Journal, Poetry Salzburg Review, San Pedro River
Review, The Hamilton Stone Review, The Writing Disorder, Third
Wednesday, Tipton Poetry Journal, Yes Poetry, and elsewhere, among
others. She resides in the US and the coastal town of Nha Trang, Vietnam,
where she is a mom of two far-too-clever-frolicsome imps. She can be
contacted at: https://www.facebook.com/Lana-Bella-789916711141831/
EDITOR’S NOTE: Lana Bella’s poetry struck my sensibilities in a most
urgent way. Her poems are luxuriously lyrical, mingling nature symbolism
with tantalizing eros. She has a gift for weaving tangible imagery into the
most eloquent phrasing. Her words ache with nostalgia, but in the most
sublime way, erasing the stark pain and replacing it with swooning
melancholy. !
!
DEAR SUKI: LETTER V FOR VERMOUTH
Dear Suki: Caffè Roberto Cavalli, Italy,
July 13th, to be so easy in your body,
the rose-chill Negroni careened its way
tempering everything but me. There
was an ache and stirring of skin pressed
into the orchestra of summertide's light
coat; the evening was warming up, finely
veined gold on your blossom mouth
chasing the neatly dressed vermouth. I
emerged from your fingers' caress fluent
in spices, and gin and orange slice on
the rocks; breaths digested the balms of
budding fig and cherry like sublimity
professed. Muffled traffic moved with ease
between wisps of gossips everywhere
and around us, while your gaze flecked