another poet
apologizes at a microphone
weakening the hull of our ship
if you can’t believe in your poems
leave them at home until you
learn to deserve them
this poem this poet
will not apologize
I’m tired of smelling my dead boyfriend
his swimming arms lost to my bed
it hurts to admit I love being alive
I broke and those pieces broke
and those pieces crushed to powder
things to avoid saying around me:
take it like a trooper
stiff upper lip
keep it together
don’t let your mouth say these things
don’t let your comfort be selfish cruelty
let them shriek
let them sob
don’t be
a coward
about love
From While Standing in Line for Death (Wave Books, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by CAConrad. Used with permission of the author and Wave Books.
everyone asks for the you they remember
I wish for no new way to feel alone again
America is
the wrong angel
a classic wristwatch
on the arm of a man who
thinks he owns himself
back to the borrowed
amount of living
here is a rough sketch of what
we look like inside when mortality
distracts us from how we destroy the world
I draw Odin’s ravens
under the shelf of
teapots in the
department
store
may the tea bring us strength
may wings lift us to revolution
From While Standing in Line for Death (Wave Books, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by CAConrad. Used with permission of the author and Wave Books.
journeyman who
denies everything
even the journey
lost in a pile of
needles and spools
the only trees in this
desert are books
a bottle made of
ideas hits
the throat of the system
tell us about that gold watch you dropped into hot coals
shame’s a balance beam
better off crashing to
the ground
stay there
stopping
the blood
a lot of blown-up
mountains to
keep the
lights on
From While Standing in Line for Death (Wave Books, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by CAConrad. Used with permission of the author and Wave Books.
the pearl starts over
a new grain of sand
we are going to find
in the planet of blue
a freshly written eviction note
a sash hanging off the horse
told the story without you
the kind of children we deserve who rob us in our sleep
we never need to believe in anything again
they take our car and money and head for the beach
From While Standing in Line for Death (Wave Books, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by CAConrad. Used with permission of the author and Wave Books.
no one knows where I am in the morning and I like that
set my periscope on breath of dreaming tyrants
heir to a forest
do you mean fortune
no I mean forest caressing wound of earth surrounding it
twelve trees is a forest these days
clinging to dirt between
shopping malls and banks
everything gets caught clinging between
shopping malls and banks
ask your children
what the new
moon requires
From While Standing in Line for Death (Wave Books, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by CAConrad. Used with permission of the author and Wave Books.