Damocles

Drink me down

and dry, Damocles.

Now we rise

           too late to greet the dawn.

If we could hear the noise

           from our star 

it would pound, jackhammer-dull,

           burr-bu...

Failure

I am a snagged stitch –

I tug my knitting
unravelled to shapelessness

I am a blunt pencil –

I chew my worn stub
taste words I might have written

Disorientated in time and faith

dementia’s eclipse casts over her moon
marooned memories sit misted by clouds

her childre...

1.

Plant a sunflower
or two even more
precociously

2. 

Our captive escapee
almost abhors reservations
 

3.

That crevices smell became
sententious all at once

Colin James has book of poetry, Resisting Probability, from Sagging Meniscus Press.
He lives in Massachusetts.

I am not strong but I have built a house because to build a house, you don’t build a house. You plan. I am very good at planning and this is because I am very good at following through. For a very long time, these were my plans:

            Move out of state. There will...

Holy Socks

I have a hard time throwing away holy socks.
Every time I put one on, I think, awe man,
… this ain’t so bad.
When I put one on this morning, my big toe
Was halfway out. A rebel sock making its own holes
a fingerless glove for your foot. Brass knuckled toes
wi...

Acquiesce

Crystalline spider,
size of a seed, thumbs
clenched edges of the
impenetrable
peony bud, balled
until it’s ready,
uncaring over
the arachnid’s need
to lay eggs inside

Balloon in the intersection at night

Floating pearl, string dragging
along blacktop, four-way s...

Tomato picking

Grape tomatoes, these swollen berries like summer
ornaments, dangle from tethered vine. Their ripeness
judged by how delicately they hold their stem. With fingers
wrapped like cupping a firefly, it should come loose. Pull
too hard and it won't be ready....

Across Moonlight Square the bar of the Joe stood up. Decorated with exotic Hawaiian passages, the bar’s decor described the story of the brawny owner. The drinks were cheap; there were extra beers and dried shrimps. The environment was good and familiar.

            Bro...

None.

Blue seashells over my eyes I call them coins

          leave them under the gravestones

that like the old man's teeth

                                             rot in long lines lisping...

             On Thursday, the world lost power.

             On Friday, people gathered at one another’s apartment complexes and hosted potlucks with leftovers that couldn’t stay in the fridge any longer. They sat on wooden chairs around a...