recent poems

Car Crash

they said you had a gift
it was very important to continue your writing
but how could you having lost all your confidence
after the car crash

your body could not forget
that intense threat it felt
the whole system jammed and seized
it did not matter

no elelctricity would not make the thing, your heart, go
because even if they knew, knew that you could
that you could give, give on words so good or make words
delightless traps and devils, birthday cakes, railway stations

what sense was there to it, or from where will it have reason, screaming
yes, yes these were things, yes a devil, black and red
set a trap for you on your birthday
and that trap waited to spring

waited, as though patiently
although it was just the devil knew
knew the mechanism would act this way
when you got off the train and inevitably met in the lobby

steam, steam and sweet words, steam and sweet words and sugar
and glass, but in between our legs we had rough hair
which, when seen accidentally, say, in the morning, under pajamas
let us think we were like fawns, or gave us back our animal character…

like when you feel someone is there, when you sense someone is there
in the room with you, sometimes because you saw a human shape, before realizing
it is a bathrobe, which is a human shape, and even moves like people move
when someone is inside of it

curtis knapp

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