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Martha Meltzer

Martha Meltzer is a California poet from the East San Francisco Bay area town of Pleasanton. She is currently serving as their 5th Poet Laureate. She has been published in the SF Street Sheet, California Quarterly. and In The Mist. Last year she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Words

they are adding new words to the dictionary locavore and staycation flash mob and green-collar my spell check confused underlines them as I type words in their infancy newly hatched with jagged bits of shell clinging to consonants are now official be calm my fingers say as I peck the keys the old words remain sassafras and jubilation cotillion veranda words that have grown beautiful in mature plumage sublime in past knowledge smooth and polished they patiently wait between pages