The American Poetry Review

FIVE POEMS

The Key

You have to go back to being immature,
a timed regression essential
to running up a further lifetime of debt.

I owe you, the polar bear says,
an icy French OUI. A kiss on both cheeks,
plus a wish to sit on a bench

at the center of a green-painted park,your legs planted. The unique sensoryeffect of the mind holding onto itself

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The American Poetry Review

The American Poetry Review3 min read
Three Poems
It’s a glorious spring day in February. The utility company is clawing leadpipes out of the pavement while big magnolia blossoms tumble into thehole. At the doctor, I sit gingerly, trying not to wrinkle the butcher paper.I think of my grandmother, wh
The American Poetry Review2 min read
Another Architecture Cruise
I wait for what I know:curved tiles reflecting the river,a contextual style, the glittering glassof West Wacker Drive. We pass the port housesbuilt like boats along the water:a single round window painted green.The guide says, just wilderness. We dis
The American Poetry Review1 min read
Two Poems
or a hedge apple in snowHow did we come to be in this dark closet, countless strands of tinsellashing the space betweenInventor (inventedI ask the nail technician for acrylics like the fluorescent ethanol in thecarpenter’s levelshanging against the f

Related Books & Audiobooks