A former Ohio resident, Mary L. Mazzocco is a freelance writer and poet who lives in Goodyear, Arizona. Her articles and essays have appeared in The Arizona Daily Star, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Steubenville (Ohio) Herald-Star and other regional publications in Ohio.
Ms. Mazzocco's poetry has appeared in Ohio Writer and Potpourri Magazine. A poem titled "So Bold Among the White Lilies" won first prize in the Skyline Writers' (North Royalton, Ohio) literary contest in August, 2000. Before moving to Arizona, Ms. Mazzocco spent many winters in California and visits California often. The two poems in this collection, "The Price of California Real Estate" and "Heeding Horace Greeley" were written about California.
Ramshackle house, vacant
and boarded, leans dry rot
into dust swirled by a late
winter Santa Ana, boasts
four acres where goats
herded and roosters crowed
to see brown fields yield gold.
Ranch house, rambling color
of stucco before sleek tints, crowns
sparse acres brown and fallow.
Corner to corner fortune
waits. A spavined
creature grazes there.
I see him through the window, ring the bell at his
front door, disturb him as he reads the paper.
I want to come in, I say. I've been staying
on the other side of the canyon, but I own
this house, you know. I envy
him the symmetry of its fine lines,
the broad expanse of its windows.
You're mistaken, he says. You don't
own this house. You can't come in.
He closes the door.
Early. Already weary.
She pushes her heavy
gurney--brooms, mops, soaps,
towels, crisp linen. She
cleanses, sanitizes, burnishes.
Absolves luxury.
Early and already weary,
flush from timed laps
in Vittadini swim wear,
she surveys a French manicure,
runs fingers through tinted
hair. Relaxes like a cat,
lapping up sun.
Stuccoed walls guard
courtyards, cloned
balconies. Closed
shutters guard
interiors. Fears guard
our neighbors,
ourselves.
Who are we?
Who shares these walls?
Close anonymity.
Hikers pursue
In the distance
Crowded foothills,
a dusty trail
on the mountain.
coyotes hunker
against affliction.
house imprisoned, wait
for fault lines--to free them.
Wind rattles dry fronds,
cadavers with no flesh
to heal them. They moan
in protest, seek peace
in their joinings, and freedom.
Shards of eucalyptus tinder
wind's vast caverns.
Sandbags wait
in the arroyo.
Restless in quotidian comfort, lured
Mired in ennui, beleaguered snowbirds answer
to the siren call of possibility
in land still populous with timber
and dust of gold nuggets, pioneers
hired scouts, hitched Conestoga schooners
to horse, oxen, and mule teams, hauled
prairie dreams in deep bellies. Shared
food in comity. Circled
wagons tight and armed
against aggression.
Overcame Native Americans.
the siren call of sun cities. Airstream, Winnebago,
Park Avenue and Town Car caravan
on trails scouted by triptiks,
round up at motel circles
trail side, grub fast food,
sleep king-size in dead bolt comfort.
Overcome eighteen-wheelers spewing
amphetamine aggression.
All text and images in The Central California Poetry Journal are copyrighted. Copyright by © by Scott Galloway2002. All rights are reserved. See main Journal page for copyright information.
Authors and poets submitting original materials to this journal retain all rights to their original work, except those rights specifically assigned in writing to Solo Publications including the right to publish the submitted work in The Central California Poetry Journal. The poems on this page are copyrighted by the author. Copyright © Mary L. Mazzocco 2002 All Rights Reserved
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