IT'S a FAMILY AFFAIR: Get to Know Exit Strata's Poetry Festival Team
1
and sometimes,
when no one is watching
I pick up sticks and place them in my pocket
so they can feel like they belong to something again.
2
But let's stay grounded ...
At plains and prairies' end,
sharp mountains loom,
obscured by residueof fire. Many dim gray
columns of smoke rise,
slanted like sunbeams,
reversing, it seems,
the old image of radiant grace,
a sign
to score the acrid skies.
3
as I cut,
the pane of glass
was simple until I came
across
a second hand
I cannot say for sure why
I found it repulsive
longing and apathy
became synonymous- but still
like an angel without a synthesizer
4
like lips whistling with more wind than melody
the note held in fingers blurring fresh ink with sweat
stained shirts my old roommate’s collar colored yellow
yolks run down the sandwich, down my hand
shaking trying to light a match to light a cigarette
ashes and coffee grounds augured over mornings
spent trying to find the right word, to say what
I want to hear glaciers falling down mountains
5
the air is aggressive
not to be moved within
but to rub against, to slide
skin on skin on humid skin
until these damp curtains
all zippered buttoned tied
show themselves
remnants
of an obsolete notion:
solitude and summer are dissimilar
to the point of mutual exclusivity
(1: Tishon, from Sometimes; 2: Bill Considine, from Continent of Fire; 3: Lancelot Runge, from The Hell Out; 4: Ben Wiessner, from Slow Dancing Answers, Banter; 5. Lynne DeSilva-Johnson, from Kinsey Report)