“broken paper and bent glass” by mike sluchinski
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “broken paper and bent glass” by mike sluchinski.
broken paper and bent glass
By mike sluchinski
well broken it broke all over the place
papers ripped shredded weaned off the book
and someone pushed it into my hands on a street
just like this one yours your street and i walked down
it thank god it wasnโt mine can you imagine the mess
left over i saw floating sheets furled to the sun and gray
wool socks on weathered lines and a wire with work clothes
and six pairs of pants all blue the ones janitors wear and the ones
poets they walk past them in the halls and theyโre off to bigger
and better things and i took it hard wrapped it into my chest
stuck it in my coat pocket the inside one hidden inside it
has a little button to close it like a secret agent and you canโt
see them you know the ones the pockets you keep mints and
toothpicks in and a friendโs phone number who calls you at
funerals after you text them for a call just to get you out of
looking at morgue make up and hands folded over left to
right and it works and thatโs why the pocket is there but
the paper sure the one somebody gave you them on the streets
handing out something no soup for sure but paper and you canโt
eat it well except with your eyes theyโre bold teeth arenโt they
they cut and gnash and you can see the others around you their
eyes ripping flesh and the words bark out run run run and
so i did down the street not mine yours probably and my eyes
chewed the soft morning air and i ran past a guy sleeping in
front of a donut shop where coffee costs five dollars and
thereโs a special on some bread i canโt pronounce and the
guy sleeping rough never ate and at the end of the day i get
a lot of these notes the papers pushed the memos the grenadiers
lobbing dirty fists and mail order blues at me and i still
walk the streets every day and walk down yours and
my eyes well they read all the notes chewing the words grinding
the slanted sentences and the glass i read through bends
the light and words just enough
that i keep walking
every day
Copyright ยฉ mike sluchinski
mike sluchinski listened to the grateful dead, ate leftover tacos, and bought a ticket to athens today. gratefullly appears courtesy of el shaddai in poetry pause, quarterly literary review of singapore, eunoia review, heartwood literary magazine, dublin poetry walk โ24 & โ26, FLARE: the flagler review, scifaikuest, tulane review, mantis, south florida poetry journal (soflopojo), freefall lit., pulp mag, in parentheses, and more coming. blessed, empowered, accepted, anointed, mighty in the lord.
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