Avant-Garde
A man slouches before a uni-colored canvas
with the perplexity of a stumped technician
gaping at the unremittingly blank screen
of a television. He adjusts his stance,
a double antenna, in search for reception.
Poetry Prize
Among Other Things
I bought her two pairs of wide-leggèd jeans at Target last week. For the longest time, like a year, I’d
Dear First Draft of This Poem
I wrote you by hand but can barely read you now.
What beautiful cross-outs you offer
the world!
Safety Drill
The notice from my daughter’s school about the next safety drill arrives in my inbox the weekend before her first
Claw Machine
More to the left, he says, then leans to watch
the dangling claw from a better angle
as I guide the stubby joystick, grease-slick
from unwashed hands—just two coin-fed alley kids
fishing for a way to pass the time. Behind the screen,
the glass-eyed, cheap stuffed animals, cotton-cored
The We
we cars, we jewelry. we hey hey
at shorties who are often forward.
we unbelievable, two tone, cut
with or can’t be cut from.