Cold Feet, Blue Heart
A golden shovel

“Did I tell you the time I fell in love during a backflip? I was heels over head.”

Oh did
she ever take my breath away. I
sweat like my nerves were just tell-
ing on themselves. Exchange the rings, you
nudged, and the
way my hands trembled. When it was time
to kiss the bride, I
stumbled and nearly fell
onto the white dress she sewed in
a single night. My love,
she was a crafty woman. During
wedding hustle and bustle, she also baked a
three-tiered cake that made our tongues backflip.
I cannot explain to you how happy I
am. Or was.
Before I caught her heels
over
another man’s head.

The Age-Old Question Answered
Medieval warrior, focused and fierce,
with deft precision, his broadsword pierced
a pale pacifist, wispy and paper-thin

Innocent woman, with heart thrust to God,
prayed for the strength to move past the blood
and ignored the pain, determined to win

Suddenly, the ground and red sky erupted
-the horrific scene, thoroughly interrupted
by a boulder-like man, rock-solid and hard

Before he could carve, before he could wound,
the knight was bulldozed by the galloping goon
Was flattened, damaged, and unmistakably marred

Heart wildly beating, violently seething,
vision blurred, and heavily breathing,
wrath was warring on the big man’s face

The dove-like creature, thankful, in truth,
attempted to soothe the murderous brute
by wrapping him in peace and a caring embrace

Like sun-soaked lips lathered in balm,
tremors gave way to unfamiliar calm,
and the stone in his chest broke into vapor

The story continues to say that the demon
was saved by the touch and love of a woman
And that is how rock was beaten by paper

Lannie Stabile (she/her) is the winner of OutWrite’s 2020 Chapbook Competition in Poetry; the winning chapbook, “Strange Furniture,” is out with Neon Hemlock Press. She is also a back-to-back finalist for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 Glass Chapbook Series and back-to-back semifinalist for the Button Poetry 2018 and 2019 Chapbook Contests.