Book Spotlight - Waitress at the Red Moon Pizzeria

In this series, we will be highlighting one of some of the great work from our authors. Our first book is Waitress at the Red Moon Pizzeria be Eleanor Levine

Artificial Limbs    

"for sweetie"

Artificial limbs
are more than the synthetic joints and toes
sightable apparitions that permit
the live skeleton to indulge in his existence
it is the infrared eyesight
the eschewed reality
of a Danish psychiatrist believing there is 
sunlight in Winter
or a born-again Southerner acknowledging that God
is a bathroom seat
or a dog believing that a tissue is food
or a man thinking his mistress walks glibly
down the shopping aisle
that Allen Ginsberg was a misogynist
because he had several affairs with women
or that Kurt Cobain died for our sins
or that red  nail polish will hide your dirty nails
or that mice droppings can kill people
and artificial limbs dangle from New Zealand trees
where a daughter cries for love from your heart
and another wraps those limbs from
the pavement because she’s afraid
or your friend, when he tells you,
he can get it up for 20 minutes
or the sister who needs a psychiatrist
tells everyone else they need one
or that Michael Jackson was really a woman
taking piano lessons
artificial limbs are our girlfriends who never kiss us
the homeless man who smells of urine and wants to be our friend
the dead fish, which, when thrown back into the water,
doesn’t come to life
and the snarled reflections of a dead prostitute
who thinks he’s literary
the quaky sound of an old British queen who wittily tells you
“crossword puzzles are the aerobics of the soul” 
or that Henry Miller has a stop sign between clauses
and Norman Mailer was a literary genius
and Susan Sontag’s language is more visual than Leni Riefenstahl
and that amusing intellectual conversation
will redeem a thousand wounds
that by placing limbs in the arms of someone
or painting their house
you have given them a heart
it dies when you leave them up a tree.

unsolicited questions

​What kind of images did this poem evoke?


What kind of person would you describe the narrator?


Who would you recommend this poem to? Why?


Who were the people mentioned in the poem? Take some time to research them and share your results.


What smells does this poem evoke?

about the book

In Waitress at the Red Moon Pizzeria, Eleanor Levine has crafted a collection of poetry that will challenge her readers to view their pasts through a new lens: one that is untainted by regret, shame, or fear. She invites her readers to reflect on the honesty in the desire, love, and pain that have driven their lives by following the journeys of narrators using the same lens to view their own lives. A daughter worries about her father buried deep in the ground, alone except for the cicadas that cover the ground every seventeen years. A mother attends Wagnerian acupuncture lessons and struggles to maintain the sanctity of her children’s Jewish heritage even as it slips into the cracks of passing time. A sister laments the monotony of her brother’s chosen lifestyle but wonders if the commotion of her own life merits any higher worth. A woman faces rejection and acceptance from the women she desires as sexual and emotional companions. The quiet moments of life are on display in this collection that refuses to accept that the past is something to be ashamed of. Deeply personal and joyfully candid, Waitress at the Red Moon Pizzeria is an invitation to look beyond the mistakes and missteps that lead us to believe our histories might be nightmares.


- See more at: http://www.unsolicitedpress.com/store/p92/waitress#sthash.7HTChrdU.dpuf