Poem: Cameo By A Stranger

Originally published in Wilderness House Literary Review.

When something like this comes to you, you can't walk away and hide, not if you're trying to be a serious poet.

Owl

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Cameo By A Stranger

when someone you love ends,
she becomes your wound.
you open your poisoned mouth
to eulogize her, and wretch.

close years shared well
curdle like an infection.
you imagine yourself
retying the knot:

the feel of the cinch
on the final crane
of your rope-burnt neck.

you crave
that false liberation. to jump.
tense cities of dolls
shunt around your scared grief.

lies of living rubber
are all smiles and pep.
grids without breaking point.
no omega, no how.

the agony of your soles,
swaying like stalled
quivering pendulums--
only that exists.



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