When it was over
we took a walk
in our matchings suits
one large
one small
to a hill by the house
where the lights of the city
spread beneath us
like an upended starscape
Category: Poetry
Poetry: Adoration
I clothe myself
in compliments
the adoring words
of strangers
I tie back my hair
with retweets
Poetry: Introduction
This is my knee
It creaks
when it bends
like the old willow tree
at the house
we lived in
when we kids
Poetry: Funeral Pyre
Grey snow in the air
and the wind that spins
around and up and through
skeletons of what was,
silhouettes that crumble
and disappear.
Poetry: Morning Pep Talk
I am old and fat and slow.
Even the breath leaving this body is stale,
leached of life by its torturous climb
from the flesh cavity of my chest,
up the worn trachea,
and into a mouth clinging to its teeth
like a shipwrecked sailor to driftwood.
Poetry: Never Catching Up
I started with
the basic summary—
one wife, two jobs, no kids—
then added chapters to detail
the paths taken
since we last spoke,
but soon realized
I was boring even myself.
Poetry: Six Geese A-Laying
When you were five
and so small you were
almost lost in your own jacket—
a bundle of bones
and two eyes so blue
they drowned out the summer sky—
you would recoil
from every loud noise on
the nearby street,
Poetry: Linear Degradation
I left for work this morning
but never came home.
The man they sent in my place was older,
weaker. He had a scar across his left
cheek and gray splotches in his hair.
Poetry: Fever Dream, Part 2
Last night, I dreamed
that you were tossing back highballs
from a martini glass,
and when I pointed this out,
you slapped me,
and said everyone was doing it.
Poetry: The End of Sheep
When I struggle to fall asleep,
I’ll count white hairs instead of sheep,
as there are more of them each day.
(How many more? I cannot say,
for when my counting climbs past ten…