"People need faith. Beliefs change, like fashions, with each season ..."

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Caron recommends these on line literary sites.

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Contact
Ms. Andregg

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Some Rivers

Desire carves a river
calling 'down, down,'
from steep to swift to swollen,
to the running out. Some rivers beg
immersion -- the jackknife splash,
the first icy wash, the gasp
of breath with its startled 'husst'.

Steps feel a path through
eddying foam, as a woman
makes her tactigraphic map
of man's luxurious topography
by laying on hands, relying
on touch and trust.

Some wild, white-watered streams
spill treacherous and seductive;
jack pines spike each bank,
stones roll and clatter under churning foam,
whisper their riddle, endlessly.

Gorge-fed northern brooks
cobble slate and black
with the midnight backs of urgent salmon;
sows bound for gravel, quick with roe;
impotent jacks flushed with instinct
and lust, quake and ripple
up each rapid, break
where they can't spend
and die, at last, in company;

And that oldest of rivers, underground
Hell's turnpike, that bleeds
a toll from every ghost
Elysium pulling like a jack-
light from the other side.
But only Charon has a boat.

Often the crossing is enough:
the baptism in sweat, the current's thrum,
the flesh that recoils then yields,
the cold release. Thighs
vibrate like divining rods
in this fluid embrace, this lust
to return to water.






Cassandra of Troy

Truth is, people don't change. Even in the
___time of Troy, men had trouble believing
'no' means 'no.' and they never took
___it well. Cassandra spurned the motions
of a lustful God and he cursed her for it,
___fated her to foretell the future but go unheeded. Still,
fate just mimics human nature. Agamemnon
___prized her for her prophesy, stole her to shore
up his own forces, then proceeded
___to ignore her completely, her warnings useless.
Men still hear only what they want
___to hear. She could have been speaking

to the horses. The king had ears
___only for his own speeches;
won his foreign war only to be blind-sided
___by treachery at home. He couldn't believe
his queen had gone so far. Cassandra
___saw it, she saw them all slaughtered like fat ewes
long before he mounted the steps of his
___capital, the gift of premonition
raw and blazing as a whiplash across
___her mind, saw Clytemnestra shove
in the knife, knew they would come for her too.
___She went down fighting, not stoic and still

but biting and screaming, kicking
___Aegisthus' henchmen in the nuts, hands still
chained to her chariot, knowing she
___ was already dead, understanding the unspeakable:
that there are many worse things
___than death; immortality made irrelevant, shorn
and withered. Gods grown diminished,
___when divinity outlives belief
become blind beggars in Santa Monica,
___perch on curbs motionless
as abandoned idols in their own ruined
___temples, slouch in the doorways of used

record stores, speaking in tongues like
___oracles set adrift, eyes on fire with useless
prophesy, wreathed in the perfumed smoke
___of second-hand cigarettes and stalled
city buses. But the soul of immortality
___is patience. Devotion cycles with the motion
of a wheel; they have time to wait, watch
___it all come around again, hoping their spoke
will eventually turn up on top.
___People need faith. Beliefs
change, like fashions, with each season,
___but the need endures. Cassandra haunts the shore

working a perfect tan beyond the
___shadow of the Ferris wheel, sure
there is more power in being beautiful
___than being wise. A third-year Sophomore at UCLA
she is deeply into her thesis that
___no sheepskin with honors will ever beat a flat belly
and a tight ass as the right tools
___for the task of getting what you want. Men still
hear only what they want to hear:
___but she is a cunning linguist, able to speak
out of both sides of her mouth,
___able to measure the emotions

of each audience. She still can see
___that far with a keenness beyond intuition
but she has put off prophesy, left it to the holy
___homeless building their temples in barred-up store-
fronts after dark. She has made peace with fate,
___learned there are ways to leave the truth unspoken
and still not lie. Meanings condense
___within what's left unsaid like complex music
blossoms in its pauses. It wasn't Helen's face
___that launched a thousand ships and distilled
the fates of nations -- it was her silence.
___Helen never said no; just let men believe

what they wanted to believe, set into motion
______the wheels of war. Women use
their wisdom as they can, even when sure
______it will make no difference; still
struggle with a fate that lets them see the future and speak
______the truth but never be believed.