Janet Kuypers

  Journalism graduate Janet Kuypers founded Scars Publications (http://scars.tv), which sponsors two literary magazines, multiple collection books and audio CDs. Kuypers has been published (not through Scars Publications) over 9,300 times for her writing and has been interviewed for magazines, AM, FM and Internet radio stations and television; was nominated as Poet of the Year for 2006 and was inducted as a Poetry Ambassador in April's 2006 Poetry Month. Kuypers has also run monthly PodCasts and two Internet radio stations (as well as hosting her own BZoO.org 1 hour weekly Internet radio station). As well as having her poetry mp3 files for sale at most major online music stores, she has performed spoken word across the country - including a Chicago performance at the Albuquerque Spoken Word Festival during the National Poetry Slam in 1998; in 2003 she hosted and performed at a weekly poetry and music open mike (called "Sing Your Life"), and from 2002 through 2005 was a featured performance artist, doing quarterly performance art shows with readings, music and her artwork.

The Burning

I take the final swig of vodka

feel it burn it’s way down my throat

hiss at it scorching my tongue

and reach for the bottle to pour myself another.

I think of how my tonsils scream

every time I let the alcohol rape me.

Then I look down at my hands --

shaking -- holding the glass of poison --

and think of how these were the hands

that should have pushed you away from me.

But didn’t. And I keep wondering

why I took your hell, took your poison.

I remember how you burned your way

through me. You corrupted me

from the inside out, and I kept coming back.

I let you infect me, and now you’ve

burned a hole through me. I hated it.

Now I have to rid myself of you,

and my escape is flowing between the

ice cubes in the glass nestled in my palm.

But I have to drink more. The burning

doesn’t last as long as you do.