April 2007

bio

    E. Amato has been a featured performer in numerous venues from the U.S. to the U.K., rocking the mic in front of audiences of 1 to 1000. Her writing appears in anthologies, websites, and zines. She has had the honour of being photographed by Mark Savage as part of his Souls + Passions series on L.A. poets. Wanderlust and the lure of new challenges led her to produce a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2007. For two consecutive years, Down Home Presents PoeJazzi earned 5 star reviews at the Fringe Festival.
    Bringing together poets, musicians, and visual artists, E. Amato hosted and performed in the ever-evolving show that played to repeat visits by audience members. Down Home, the monthly poetry and music series she created and hosts at Bolivar Cafe and Gallery in Santa Monica has featured a combination of local and nationally renowned spoken word artists, musicians, and artists since 2006. The London offshoot debuts in December 2009.

Soledad

toddlers named Mariah and BeyoncÈ
scramble past mother’s insistent voices
everyone mills waits passes
time

it is visiting day
at the prison
and it is the most female
congregation you will see
any Sunday
any
where

this is what we do
we wait
and in waiting
are reminded again
that we are women
and women wait

wait for lover’s locks
to turn keys
wait for children
to tie shoes
wait for fathers
to be fathers
wait for dryers
for dishwashers
for deliveries
of all kinds
wait
for our day in the sun

it is sunny
this Sunday
but it is cold
in the central California morning
this is a form of mourning
this waiting
it is a decimal
of the time being wasted
by the incarcerated

we wait
to entertain them
to give them back
Sunday
to connote
weekend
to destroy
endless
to rape
boredom
to tease
normal
to mark
time

my ear marks
English
rarely
only the c.o.’s use it
and then in
terse phrases

these new sisters
of mine
speak Spanish
to me
who doesn’t
but here
it is Esperanto
the simple sentences
the question-answer game
we can share
does not need vocabulary

40 more years
at age 45
does not require
much translation
especially when she punctuates
with
…la vida

the stories
will kill you
so don’t tell them

dress pretty
not provocatively
do not pay
the vendor
$1.25 for a donut

put contraband
which is everything
in your car
before getting on the bus
or you will have to go back

and you don’t want to wait
another hour
after the four
already passed
after the hundreds
of miles logged
after the days
and months
of not making this trip

inside
we all attend
men

but we have made friends
and smile
tentative
as we wait
on the food line
or put coins in the vending machines
or we pass in the ladies’ room

we are sisters
invading a world of men
with sad goodwill
the crying
the indignation
if any
was months ago
or years
or decades

we are
window-dressing
on misery

we are
witness
to their proper upkeep

we ask
if they have enough food
if anybody is messing with them
they tell us
what we need to hear

it is a game of sorry
and
yes
someone stole
all the “get out of jail free” cards
from this box of monopoly

copyright 2006 E. Amato