apartures, deer as permission to die in ohio, naked in dog years

RECENT PRIVATELY SELF-PUBLISHED COLLECTIONS:

apartures, 125 pages
poems, January 2023

deer as permission to die in ohio, 43 poems
chapbook, April 2023
cover image by Noah M Smock

naked in dog years, 55 pages
April 2024
cover image by Noah M Smock

*****

Poems from apartures:

I PRETEND THAT MY TEETH ARE THE TEETH OF THOSE WHO’VE SEEN MY TEETH

only god would fake sleep in an empty house

~~

SORROW’S EGGS MOSTLY HATCH

dream only 
of discovered 
things

~~

MORE AND MORE POEMS ABOUT SLEEP

a cigarette burn and a bitemark fight over a tooth from the dryer

jesus
was just a kid

~~

WAYSIDES

It is not healthy to write about god. 
Childish to die alone. There is 

some happiness. 

Loss finds a way out. Few 
of the pill's 

bones break. 

*****

Poems from deer as permission to die in ohio:

SMALL POEMS AGAINST DYING

the valley
of insect
the lost
plural
the funeral
we held
for a pill
the low
priest
of wrist pain
his bad
back
snow
snow

~~

AGAINST POEMS

I put my father’s ear to a leaf. Listen for the salt in my mother’s knee. Place a handgun on the pillow that god rolled under. Leave with a dog that can’t hear thunder.

~~

SMALL POEMS AGAINST DYING

The turn-takers god and sleep. 

Southern attempts 
at non
graphic 

violence. 

A mother’s pet wasp. 
A boy 
not able 

to overhear. 

Spider
spelling
psalm.

An allness.

Apple bones and future
lambs.

~~

SMALL POEMS AGAINST DYING

An impossible stone. And in the stone the middle sick child of noise. And in the child a clueless crow. Now strikes now. Pain only remembers tomorrow. 

I won't create god. He keeps asking. 

The extent of my knowing is that I know it is there, 
the thing my life interrupts.

She, her, field. Leaving 

on an Ohio
road

a mouse
to invent
ice.

The angels are fine. Miracles are terrifying.

*****

Poems from naked in dog years:

OUTSIDE OF THE DREAM WE SEE MOSES BREAK A SKATEBOARD OVER HIS KNEE

A black leaf is trying to make a fist

A baby
is scraping
by

~~

THE NAKED NUDE TRAPPED BY TOUCH AND THE BRIEF ANIMAL THAT SLEPT ON US

Look like someone who’s being looked at

Cut yourself 
in circle’s 
home

*****

All collections are pay what you want.

Can be purchased via
paypal (bartsmock@gmail.com)
Venmo: @Barton-Smock-2
CashApp: $BartonSmock
Zelle bartonsmock@yahoo.com