Yanked from the freezer, it doesn't resist, cubes dispersed unevenly, one side of the pale blue plastic tray weighted down by a half-
dozen freezer-burned squares capped with frosty afros, and two loose, leaping, liberated, plunging and then shattering on the cold kitchen linoleum below.
Yoga Is Not Stretching
“Yoga is not stretching,” she said while stretching to the cadre of eager yogacolytes, gnarled, wrenched and bent in consent to her command.
“Yoga is not stretching,” she spoke softly, sotto voce, like it was a secret to be shared only among the most limber stretchers in the class.
Bowing her pliant body she spun on one leg, toward the sun, yelling “Yoga is not stretching!” so even the remotest stretcher in the rear could hear.
Larry O. Dean was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan, where he won three Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing, and Murray State University's low-residency MFA program. His recent books include Frequently Asked Questions (forthcoming, Salmon Poetry, 2020), Activities of Daily Living (Salmon Poetry, 2017), Brief Nudity (Salmon Poetry, 2013), Basic Cable Couplets (Silkworms Ink, 2012), abbrev (Beard of Bees, 2011), About the Author (Mindmade Books, 2011), and I Am Spam (Fractal Edge Press, 2004). Selected magazine publications include Berkeley Poetry Review, Passages North, Big Bridge, OCHO, Nude Bruce Review, and Angry Old Man. Also a critically-acclaimed songwriter, Dean has numerous releases to his credit, including Good Grief (2015), Product Placement (forthcoming, 2019) and Fun with a Purpose (2009) with The Injured Parties, Gentrification Is Theft (2002) with The Me Decade, and Fables in Slang (2001) with Post Office. Seek him out at http://www.larryodean.com/.
