chriscantwell:

ecantwell:

Splash of Red just published two new poems of mine - go check them out, if you’re into that kind of thing. 

NEW POEMZ

Fucking Beautiful: 

Learning Curve   

The Atlantic Ocean had been burning

for four days    We were told to stay inside

but we’d forgotten which houses

belonged to us    Now we lie on the beach  

watching the local theater company’s

production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream    

In the audience one lumbering

ash man walks up to an ash  

woman and leans over    He looks

surprised at all the ash    Like a man who

hits a deer with his car and stops

to see his full name written on its back  

in Sharpie    On the makeshift stage

Helena speaks of cherries    We try to know

what cherries taste like    Your gas mask

on top of my opera gloves    The whole  

wide world doused in ethanol and lit

up    We’d peel our skins off

for each other    for one glorious incandescent

cruise    one saltwater bed of again   again    

Out of the corner of the sky

something is writing words    They

look like they are in our language

But we both fail to read them    Maybe this  

is starting over