Alex Stolis

Left of the Dial

     –The man on the radio says it is 5 am

You describe being intimate without the details: a loose thread
on a forearm, a tear in the driver’s seat, fresh paint on a canvas
stretched and primed. You want to forget the song you’ll never
meet, forget the: this-is the-last-stop-can’t-wait-to-see-you-I’m
-so -very-wet-for-you scene of the crime. If we were free it would
be the same crutch; another excuse, another story, another planet,
one more falling out. Look out your window. You can almost touch
the pockmarks in the street. Every last detail awash in fog and rain,
melted snow that clings to branches; unaware and unafraid.

Alex Stolis lives in Minneapolis and has had poems published in numerous journals. His chapbook based on the last words of Texas Death Row inmates, Justice for all, is forthcoming from Conversation Paperpress (UK). Without Dorothy, There is No Going Home is also forthcoming from ELJ Publications. Most recent releases include an e-chapbook From an iPod found in Canal Park; Duluth, MN from Right Hand Pointing and John Berryman is Dead from White Sky e-books. He has been the recipient of five Pushcart nominations.