Arsenic Lobster poetry journal
Issue Fifteen
Winter 2007
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ache trade
Barton Smock

    the aluminum
triangle,
belly-hung.  say deathbed, say
calling me home.  knot
the neck
of god
in
a congregating
hunger.  the fed
hymn, foot
path
pastoral, ma
your note
in a southern
cellar.  these things
come back

blacker.  how you stored

the broken
animals
in their own

bone    down

here

where breathing is a hole
in a raft, slow

sunday
water

crying
before crying, where

cups
of earth
sit on shelves
but not

impatiently, farmers

twist ankles
routinely
refill

each socket
worrying
the land
loose

like the strap
of
a
charred

    cheap
purse
next to an eye
on the bank
    every time I look

it’s there,
ready
to go
to town
with its carefully
tin foiled

mirrors.

About Barton Smock

| Home | Issue Fifteen | Contents | Contributors | Order | 2007 Pushcart Nominees | Archive | Submission | About Us | Contact Us |