The kitchen floor awash in clothes
While flies library whisper around the sink.
There is a hole the size of everyone you loved.
All that remains is me,
The jester in your kingdom of disappointment.
Homeless clothes on the couch–
Newspapers, unread, cry near the door;
And the exchanges between us are short
Unfamiliar and formal.
This is the way we part now,
Like strangers finalizing
A treaty.
Marc Janssen lives in a house with a wife who likes him and a cat who loathes him. Regardless of that turmoil, his poetry can be found scattered around the world in places like Penumbra, Slant, Cirque Journal, Off the Coast and Poetry Salzburg. Janssen also coordinates the Salem Poetry Project, a weekly reading, the annual Salem Poetry Festival, and was a 2020 nominee for Oregon Poet Laureate.
Erica Goss served as Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, California from 2013-2016. She is the…
Sarah Barton--Zhen Xian Bao 31. Rives BFK, chiyogami, paste paper, origami paper, inks. 10”x…
Dear Readers, I was almost waylaid by a corgi at the market this morning, nearly…
The Mood Turns The swifts have weaned their young and those the cat didn’t get…
Passing All Understanding We bargain for peace meeting our understanding, Unaware of the need to…
Stones Rise Skimming the edge of an esker, gravel crunched by boots, immature red polyps…