Poetry

Vincent understood them: the way they yield

their darkling faces
to the sun,

aflame for its arcing shimmer dance

Of all the indiscreet behaviors
that colored my college years,
my deep drags of yellow highlighter
those zebra stripes I painted across textbook pages
may be my most peculiar disgrace.

Every day I carry my arms and legs

in a sling suspended from my teeth.

There's a physicist who sits in

a corner of the bar I frequent, and

Sticky heat clouds the windows.

He carries the kettle-boiled water,

a rag round his knuckles
to swallow steam.

Cop held in killing of mute with rake
How was I to know the suspect could not hear me
shout, “Drop your weapon to the ground!”
as he continued to muster the dead leaves
which had accumulated since August?