IN THE SHADOW OF A JUNK PILE

Antiquaries in toupees,

admit it! You never knew

 

the nest existed

until all the leaves fell.

THE EPISODE WITH THE PISTOL



Is suicide a solution?
inquired the fly,
goose-stepping
through the burning ruins
of a French village.

HEARTSICK

The evening light always

seems to me peculiarly sad.

My heart holds its hands

out toward the fire.

I visit the doctor,

afraid to upset the silence

following upon the collapse

of the great newspapers.

He decides to give me a shot.

He says it’s to numb me.

It doesn’t. Although spring,

I can see the system of roads

built to carry away the days.

Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of 18 print and digital poetry chapbooks and a full-length book of poetry, Lovesick (2009).