J.P. DANCING BEAR—"TRAP TEOP TRAP FLOW" (Issue 28)

Sugar House Review · J. P. Dancing Bear's, "Trap Teop Trap Flow"

TRAP TEOP TRAP FLOW

for Ruth Awad 

Today on your birthday, 

I told several people seeking advice 

to read your work. Not because, 

but because I didn't know, at the time, 

it being your anniversary howl. 

My people dreamed of stately swans 

floating across dreamcatcher 

ponds who were themselves ancient people. 

When I was a child, a bear came to me, 

and in my sleep it nudged me awake, 

and breathed into my mouth. Now I confess 

my words, my words, my tongue are hers. 

She still comes in between worlds, comes 

and looks down at me, much as you do, 

in that photo, the one where behind 

you, on swan-white paper, float the words, 

traP 

teoP 

traP 

floW 

Yes. It is the look of one who knows 

this world is a forest trail, cutting, 

winding its way down to water, down 

to a face made of tears.

ABOUT THE POET 

J.P. Dancing Bear is editor of Verse Daily. He is the author of sixteen 

collections of poetry, most recently, Of Oracles and Monsters (Glass Lyre 

Press, 2020), and Fish Singing Foxes (Salmon Poetry, 2019). His work has 

appeared in hundreds of venues.

ABOUT SUGAR HOUSE REVIEW 

We loved reading the work that we’ve published (clearly), and we want an 

opportunity to better hear our contributors. We're featuring audio recordings of 

poems from our pages, read by the poet. This an open invitation to all contributors 

from any of our issues, we were delighted to print your work, now we’re eager to 

hear it.

SETH HAGEN—"ONE OF US" (Issue 28)

Sugar House Review · Seth Hagen's, "One of Us"

ONE OF US

One of us is drunk, and one of us is lying–

if love is a temple, it’s got spiders and a curse. 

Maybe we won’t work it out, but we’re trying. 

Us still swims luminous in my mind, 

an embryo in its egg, candled and obscure— 

O.K., one of us is drunk, and one of us is lying. 

You said, “Hold that thought. I’m buying,” 

pleated a twenty you plucked from your purse. 

Were we working it out? Were we even trying? 

You swung on the surface in the glass of wine. 

“I remember our first bed. Now there are no more firsts.” 

Someone must be drunk. Someone must be lying. 

You asked me if love was just crust, salt rime 

on rock when the lies burned off from lust– 

so maybe we won’t work it out, but I’m trying. 

Let us kneel to its Form in faith or in science: the

voice of a virgin, black holes, a fifth force 

What if one of us is drunk and one of us lying? 

Maybe we won’t work it out, but love is trying.

ABOUT THE POET 

Seth Hagen has works forthcoming in DIAGRAM. He has published in the fields 

of literary study and tax law. He lives in Atlanta, GA, where he teaches English.

ABOUT SUGAR HOUSE REVIEW 

We loved reading the work that we’ve published (clearly), and we want an 

opportunity to better hear our contributors. We're featuring audio recordings of 

poems from our pages, read by the poet. This an open invitation to all contributors 

from any of our issues, we were delighted to print your work, now we’re eager to 

hear it.

BETSY MITCHELL MARTINEZ—"BUILDING L: LOS DANANTES" (Issue 28)

Sugar House Review · Betsy Mitchell Martinez's, "Building L: Los Danzantes"

BUILDING L: LOS DANANTES

I’m tired of speaking the language 

of my dreams, with its childhood rhymes 

and tidepools, its bulbs exploding 

on schedule into clusters of grape 

hyacinths. Let’s order brides on the internet 

and shape our mouths into fruits 

or kitchen utensils. Isn’t the weather 

fine today? Would you like some sugar 

in your coffee? When we visited 

the ancient Zapotec city, we crouched 

in the temple of los danzantes and studied 

the curves of naked men presumed 

by early anthropologists to be bent 

in dance. We now believe them to be 

corpses, genitals replaced with 

flowery scrolls. This is what I mean 

when I talk about dancing. 

ABOUT THE POET 

Betsy Michtell Martinez received an MFA from the University of 

Michigan. Her poems have appeared in The Northwest Review and Crab 

Orchard Review.

ABOUT SUGAR HOUSE REVIEW 

We loved reading the work that we’ve published (clearly), and we want an 

opportunity to better hear our contributors. We're featuring audio recordings of 

poems from our pages, read by the poet. This an open invitation to all contributors 

from any of our issues, we were delighted to print your work, now we’re eager to 

hear it.