"Laminia" by Milena Makani
Catherine Fletcher | Last Night at Good Luck Bar
For J.O. & T.B.
Our boy-girl-boy trio huddles together, at a booth with half-full hurricanes.
For you, I’ve crawled across our sprawly city to the junction
where Sunset bends. I lean on my umbrella, and it pops open.
Who carries an umbrella in LA? you both ask.
This morning, it felt like the sky might fall. You chide me
for being superstitious again as I knock our wooden table.
In this windowless dive, we swim in red, like the safelight of a darkroom,
like the movie set of an opium den. The Prince of Diamonds, Prince of Hearts,
and me—all young and gorgeous. I’m almost cool.
Behind us: a keyhole doorway, a pagoda bar, waves of laughing locals.
Whoah-whoahs from the jukebox grow, but we--Yes!—are louder.
Barman, draw down the clouds! Pour another round of heavenly dew!
We’re cheating the gods of our mortality! Thirsty for stories
and our visions of cinema, we mingle hypnogogic moments,
extreme angles, haunting chiaroscuro. Doubt and an unmerciful pace
of living dissolve in our imaginings. Pataphysicists, pathfinders, we
forge myths, shunpike roads to their ends.
Heart’s matinee eyes, Diamond’s endless summer grin reflect,
repeat on a wall of unbroken mirrors. Like Christmas,
like whizz wheel fireworks, we glitter like—We are bright, glittering things!
Banter riffs and rolls. Your genius, and yours, and mine balloons.
Who needs hats and rabbits? Who needs the moon, that diva?
In this red room, we could start talking backwards. Others may stumble in
from that party down the street, or from band practice across town.
There’s no last call gong, no fading out. Friends,
Princes of Yes, with the two of you, tomorrow’s in my pocket,
and the sky seems content not to fall.
Our boy-girl-boy trio huddles together, at a booth with half-full hurricanes.
For you, I’ve crawled across our sprawly city to the junction
where Sunset bends. I lean on my umbrella, and it pops open.
Who carries an umbrella in LA? you both ask.
This morning, it felt like the sky might fall. You chide me
for being superstitious again as I knock our wooden table.
In this windowless dive, we swim in red, like the safelight of a darkroom,
like the movie set of an opium den. The Prince of Diamonds, Prince of Hearts,
and me—all young and gorgeous. I’m almost cool.
Behind us: a keyhole doorway, a pagoda bar, waves of laughing locals.
Whoah-whoahs from the jukebox grow, but we--Yes!—are louder.
Barman, draw down the clouds! Pour another round of heavenly dew!
We’re cheating the gods of our mortality! Thirsty for stories
and our visions of cinema, we mingle hypnogogic moments,
extreme angles, haunting chiaroscuro. Doubt and an unmerciful pace
of living dissolve in our imaginings. Pataphysicists, pathfinders, we
forge myths, shunpike roads to their ends.
Heart’s matinee eyes, Diamond’s endless summer grin reflect,
repeat on a wall of unbroken mirrors. Like Christmas,
like whizz wheel fireworks, we glitter like—We are bright, glittering things!
Banter riffs and rolls. Your genius, and yours, and mine balloons.
Who needs hats and rabbits? Who needs the moon, that diva?
In this red room, we could start talking backwards. Others may stumble in
from that party down the street, or from band practice across town.
There’s no last call gong, no fading out. Friends,
Princes of Yes, with the two of you, tomorrow’s in my pocket,
and the sky seems content not to fall.
Catherine Fletcher is a Virginia-based writer. Recent work has appeared in Tears in the Fence, Naugatuck River Review, The Nature of Our Times, and the concert series Concept Lab. She was a Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellow (2022) and a Creature Conserve Mentee (2022-23). She serves on the Poetry Society of Virginia’s Literary Advisory Board and Seven Cities Writers Project’s Board of Directors.
Milena Makani, born in 1984 in Sofia, Bulgaria, is a German contemporary artist based in London, UK. Makani’s deeply psychological paintings depict inner landscapes characterized by layered textures, fluid forms and gradients. Employing acrylics, watercolours and inks on mineral stone sheets, she blends control and spontaneity through the interplay of organic process and manipulation. Makani lives with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome - a source of constant pain. Her works channel the mindfulness, gratitude and energy of her lived experience, as she investigates themes of resilience, serenity, joy, stoicism and fragility.
The German artist has exhibited her work in the UK, Bulgaria and Iceland and her paintings are featured internationally in various private collections.
The German artist has exhibited her work in the UK, Bulgaria and Iceland and her paintings are featured internationally in various private collections.
