{poems, span}

[stopping to pray]

how angelic
the nervousness
of insects
offering acne
to god

/ to glacier, crow is not
yet a thing

~

[pr y]

born
there
to a sleepy
projectionist

listening
to the ear’s
brief
spider

taste of bread
in your mouth

~

[treaty, grief, moon]

no clock
fast
we live
in the house
beside the house
we bought

treaty, grief, moon

some far
tornado

some nakedness

~

[dream saw and dream tooth]

to be
as asleep
as a father’s
left leg

as a birthday
for a window

~

[kite]

even
longing
loses
me

~

[blank elegy]

after death
nothing
(oh citizen)
of god

~

[confetti, glitter, sadness.]

to get news
in heaven
from other parts
of heaven
do you know
what it’s like
god’s blood
has fleas

~

[airways]

I move
tonight
(while he’s
asleep)
my son’s
finger

across
my throat
/ everyone

wants to publish
my sister’s
ghost

~

[rare disorders in the very young (ii)]

in a nightmare

(praying over
his father
to highlight
the size
of the first
computer)

he disproves

god

(son) who breathes

for a snake
made of milk

~

[boy musics]

we’re counting cigarettes on the roof of a closed sex shop in Ohio when I tell you my father is gay. it’s too late for crow and all the deer have been hit. you have just read me three poems by your dead sister, the third of which she called dead sister. a vacuum is running below us. you ask me if I’ve ever wanted to see her handwriting. it’s nothing like yours but maybe one day.

~

NOTE:

thru June 25th, Lulu is offering 10% off all print books AND free mail shipping (or 50% off ground) with coupon code of BOOKSHIP18

/poetry collections, mine, self-published, are here: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/acolyteroad

//all book previews on-site are books in their entirety.

///will send free hard copy to those interested in reviewing.

most recent is here:

everything I touch remembers being my hand
9.00
172 pages
published November 2017
http://www.lulu.com/shop/barton-smock/everything-i-touch-remembers-being-my-hand/paperback/product-23423003.html