A Heart Is Not a Valentine

A heart is not a valentine -
some cheap homage to "soul" -
but rather what's germane today
to one Teutonic pole

which may point north, or dangle south
and hang its head in shame;
"electro-" might belie it, but
"magnetic force" is lame.

Yet you are quite another force
and likely to inspire
such poles to rise triumphantly -
like phoenixes from fire.

The fourteenth's not just any day
preceding any night -
but one for Veuve Cliquot and me
to do a polee right!

I'll draw the bath, then dim the light
and set the suds to hide
whatever heft young Eros brings
to Cupid's raging tide

to make this night of "gardening"
a botanist's quadrille,
and both of us conspirators
in hardening the thrill

to spring from you a gushing prize:
a mush-besotted mound;
a cave of damp delirium;
a quick trip underground

to find your seedcake of delight
wherein lust turns to love,
like butter in the grizzled beak
of one mad mourning dove.

Russell Bittner lives in Brooklyn, New York. His poems have been published on paper by: The American Dissident; The Blind Man's Rainbow; The Lyric; The Barbaric Yawp; The International Journal of Erotica; Wicked Hollow; Æsthetica; CRITJournal; andThe Raintown Review - which nominated one of his poems for a Pushcart Prize in 2007. An additional poem will be published once again in The Lyric in late December, '08.
On-line, his poetry can be found at: Quintessence; ken*again; SpillwayReview; Erotica Readers and Writers; EdificeWrecked; GirlsWithInsurance; ThievesJargon; SalomeMagazine; LauraHird; MadHattersReview; 3A.M.; Dogmatika; Mindfire; ALongStoryShort; OpiumMagazine; SouthernHum; JustusRoux; DifferentVoices; VoidMagazine; PWReview; Zygote in my Coffee; ALittlePoetry; PlumBiscuit (a journal of the New York Writers Guild); TheCentrifugalEye; SlipTongue; 3rdActs; and The Linnet's Wings. In late December, '08, two poems will appear at Per Contra/"Currents. In 2009, one will appear at AscentAspirations (February) and three will appear at The Ranfurly Review (March).
On paper, he has published stories with The Edgar Literary Magazine; The International Journal of Erotica; Beyond Centauri; SwillMagazine; The Angler; and Sein und Werden. One of his stories was published by St. Martin's Press in May, '07 in an anthology titled Next Stop Hollywood: Short Stories Bound for the Screen.
In the dot.com world, his prose can be found at: Pindeldyboz; DeadMule; writeThis; Per Contra; VerbSap ; GirlsWithInsurance; SkiveMagazine; ThievesJargon; Quintessence; MannequinEnvy; UndergroundVoices; Hackwriters; 10,000 Monkeys; DeadDrunkDublin; ALongStoryShort; SouthernHum; SuffolkPunch; VoidMagazine; the Canadian Writers Collective; SlipTongue; The Angler; 3A.M.; and the uncommon Yankeepotroast.org. The story in Per Contra earned him a Pushcart Prize nomination in 2006. An additional piece will appear at RedPeter in Jan., '09.
His photography can be seen at a number of sites on the 'Net.
Russell completed a novel, Trompe-l'oeil, in 2004, the first chapter of which appeared on paper in Snow Monkey in Feb., '07. (The same first chapter will appear at The Rose & Thorn.com in Dec., '08.) He then completed a novella-length memoir, Girl from Baku/, in June, '05, the first six chapters of which currently reside at DeadDrunkDublin.com. The entire memoir was also serialized at Dogmatika.com (9/06 - 2/07). He is presently at work on two additional novels, Gigolo, Gigolina and My Cradle, My Crucible, as well as on a collection of short stories, The Dead Don't Bitch.

Email: Russell Bittner

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