18
WE KNOW THINGS
I know things that cannot be explained hypothetically
this is the perpetual expression of my face
even when I look at myself in the mirror
messy-haired comfortable
it is like my own secret between myself
I am of things that cannot be determined earthly
I move my fingers across letters without a thought
landing together words mostly right
I do not avoid the Bible
not any longer
it is somebody's family tree
and if I can ever get through the latter half of the Pentetauch
I plan to enjoy the next twelve installments as I do
each constellation conceived
I know things that I don't have to tell my turtles
even they have their games
and respond to an angel's language
sometimes I crave something and it is half enough
but the craving felt so good
I've done things
I've interpreted songs
and even written my own
things I've seen don't shock me
but I'd be excited to experience things
the face my mother sees, does she sense it all?
I've found that I can hide dreams in my head without even their own
cameo guests any wiser
Knowledge?
I've gotten about as far through the Bible as many times
as Ulysses
does it matter?
I look down at my fingers
moving in perfect grace
behind, before, and with my thoughts
think of me
when next yours
do the same
we know things even in our distance
as evidenced in our proximity
things not undone, doing thoughts
I think things
that cannot die
all the time
I do and they're everywhere you are
naked
white sheets across your pale tuft
breezy sleep
a four-postered fairy's tail
tugged for more
let's take turns
telling stories
before we Love
that we may have something to do in the afterglow
as we lay finally still
I am thirty years old and have a bachelor’s degree in English, with a focus in Creative Writing, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I have been writing poetry every year since about the age of twelve, and have thousands of poems saved on my computer to show for it. I have also written a good deal of prose, including a handful of short stories, some random travel journals, seven unpublished novels, and an eighth one in the works.
As well, I have been reading at local bars and coffee shops off and on for the past nine years, for times at least once a week, and have been featured frequently. Recently I have featured at the Connecticut Beat Poetry Festival, where I read at the Harriett Beecher Stowe House. I have also put together a few chapbooks on my own, which have sold most modestly on the local circuit. Previously poems of mine have been featured in AlphaBeat Soup, an international publication out of the UK called Obsessed with Pipework, the UW-Milwaukee undergraduate publication Furrow, and most proudly in the New York Quarterly.
