Pavement Saw Press Chapbook Series
ISBN 1-886350-49-3
32 pages, 5.5 by 8.5, 2005
$6.00

Mary Weems is a poet, playwright, performer, social foundations scholar, and educational consultant.  She has published three other collections of poetry: Blackeyed (Burning Press, 1994) White (Wick Chapbook, Kent State University Press, 1997) and Fembles (Heartlands Today, 1996). Weems has also published a multi-genre educational text Public Education and the Imagination-Intellect: I Speak from the Wound in my Mouth (Peter Lang, 2003), and Poetry Power! a book/workbook introducing middle school students to the art of poetry (Silvermoon Press, 2003).

Poems in this chapbook first appeared in Calyx, Mirror of the Arts, Moondance, Obsidian III: Black Literature in Review, Pavement Saw, Reed Magazine, Woman Made Gallery's Her Mark 2002 Calendar, Xcp: Cross Cultural Poetics.

Tampon Class


The 10-cent tampon dispenser
in the state college john
is chipped, rusted, dented
white metal, slick
from fast fingerprints,
plucking the contents in a hurry.

The 25-cent tampon dispenser
in the downtown office building
is brass, engraved with insert
instructions.  The product shoots
from the small side chute.

The 50-cent tampon dispenser
in the mall is black and chrome
with an invisible coin slot.  It plays
music as coins drop and a secret door
opens, placing the tube in your hand

singing, thanks for bleeding.