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Mary
Mackey was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, and
is related through her father's family to Mark Twain. She
graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and received her
Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan.
During the early 1970s she lived in the rain forests of
Costa Rica. From 1989 to 1992 she served of Chair of PEN
American Center, West. Presently, she is a professor of
English and Writer in Residence at California State University,
Sacramento.
Mary Mackey's
published works include nine novels and four books of poetry
and have sold over a million copies. They have been translated
into eleven foreign languages including Japanese, Hebrew,
and Finnish. While her poetry has mainly centered around
the traditional lyric themes of love, death, and nature,
her novels have ranged from the Midwestern United States
to Neolithic Europe, from comedy to tragedy. A screenwriter
as well as a novelist, she has sold feature scripts to Warner
Brothers as well as to various independent film companies.
John Korty directed the filming of her original screenplay
Silence which starred the late Will Geer and which won several
awards.
She has lectured
at many places including Harvard and the Smithsonian. Additionally,
she has contributed to such diverse magazines as Redbook,
The New Age Journal, The American Book Review, The Saturday
Evening Post, The Chiron Review, Yellow Silk, MS Magazine,
The New American Review, and The Harvard Advocate.
The
Kama Sutra of Kindness: Position No. 2
should
I greet you
as if
we had merely eaten
together one night
when the white birches
dripped wet
and lightning etched
black trees on your walls?
it is
not love
I am asking
love
comes from years
of breathing
skin to skin
tangled in each other's dreams
until each night
weaves another thread
in the same web
of blood and sleep
and
I have only
passed through you quickly
like light
and you have only
surrounded me suddenly
like flame
the
lake is cold
the snows are sudden
the wild cherry bends
and winter's a burden
in your
hand I feel
spring burn in the bud.
Cleopatra
my body
she says
was roses once
and reeds from the Nile
my blood was resin wine,
and my hair a skein
of black silk
I
wanted to be
a pyramid once
standing alone in the desert
I wanted to be a fertile river
I wanted to be the moon
I wanted to stay
ten years old
forever
sink my roots in the mud
become a papyrus
make a scroll of myself
and never marry
when
I was a girl
I was a hieroglyph
but now I'm a whore
to Caesar
now
I dance topless
in a leopard skin
G string
Queen of the Nile
Priestess of Isis
twirling tassels
with silicone breasts
bigger than beach balls
never having any power
of my own
I've learned to seduce it
generals
emperors
business men
politicians
and professors
stand in line
to powder my ass
I
wanted to be
a pyramid once
I wanted to be
the moon
now at night
sometimes
I feel
death
crawl towards me
on its belly
When I Was A
Child I Played With The Boys
when I was a child
I played with the boys
and (because I was only a girl)
they made me
be
the Indians
my name was Fox
Woman
and they hunted me
like dogs
my name was
White Bird
and I flew to escape them
my name was
Last Star
the last
of my people
my name was
Sunset
for they caught me
and burned me
my name was
Won't Talk
for I never
betrayed us
time after time
the boys shot me down
and I came back
Red Witch
wild and chanting
came back
Ghost Dance
came back
Bad Dream
came back
Cant Forget
and Crazy-With-Grief
I know where they went
those boys with their guns
they're still hunting Indians
look
you can see
their names are
Spills Blood
and Kills-Without-Mercy
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