Afterwards Read online



  Afterwards

  part four of

  To Say This is the Way One Man Went:

  Selected Poems 1999-2012

  Kevin Shlosberg

  copyright 1999-2012 Kevin Shlosberg

  all rights reserved

  These poems have previously appeared in the following journals (in some form or another):

  "Sibling Rivalry," "A Study in Empathy," and "Thanksgiving Day": Red Wheelbarrow; "Rasselas Found": The Found Poetry Review

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-301-48988-6

  Contents

  a quick note

  A Working Day

  a study in empathy

  Dinner w/ Jampa Dorje

  Rasselas Found

  Thanksgiving Day

  Notebook Blood

  after Morning Breeze

  Mediterranean Rituals

  luck is the lone plum

  coo

  the extrication and assassination of pulchritude

  IdiotMan

  valentine after breton

  Gepetto

  why

  meditation

  sinus headache fever dream

  contemplation on memory

  contemplation on dream

  sibling rivalry

  my father gave me a rock

  w/ sincerity

  about the author

  other titles

  a quick note on this edition

  Fact: ebooks are different than print books. It is virtually impossible to control the ebook reader's experience. Meticulous typography becomes obsolete. It shall suffice to say much line indentation and deliberate word placements have been omitted from this edition.

  Truly, it is the words that matter, so what difference does it make anyway? Opposing arguments can certainly be made, but that would take time away from the poetry kc

  Afterwards

  A Working Day

  By day, I erect stacks, tapering precarious

  sorted into the 10,000 things

  between archaeology and zoology

  aerodynamics and zen

  By day, I eviscerate paper bags w/ torn handles, overflowing

  through ripped seams: pocket paper pulps

  fluorescent w/ cat urine

  inundation of the humdrum

  pot-boiler bestsellers, outdated guides to Peru

  By day, I judge them by their covers

  play resource manager, pretend to know the difference

  between complex analysis and calculus

  saddle-stitch and needlepoint

  By day I sing this little piggy went to market, this little piggy went to town

  (I sometimes get cranky and throw the books around)

  By day, hands crack paper cuts

  dust converges under corners of nail

  presses into crevices of fingertip

  a warm dullness in my shoulder

  and I drop The Complete Shakespeare on my toe

  Returning home, J and I walk the neighborhood

  she is patient w/ my limp

  she teaches me crape myrtle and liquidambar

  japanese maple and olive and madrone

  mushrooms split the trunk of an oak

  bark collects at the base of the eucalyptus

  (and now I understand why)

  citrus turning ripened hues

  fresh buds on branches that wear

  last season's leaves

  Returning home, I peel carrots, chop broccoli, cry over onion

  I wash dishes, fill the kettle, take the garbage out

  Returning home, I collapse into cushions and fiction

  tea by elbow, feet warm under J's thigh

  the cat nudges between arm and pillow

  and we are both quickly asleep

  By night, I sit still

  count my breath,

  feel my heart beating in my chest

  empty space inside my head

  I wait for thoughts to settle, softness to descend

  By night, I ambush dreams

  extract psychic metals, exploit veins of hypnagogic flow

  I watch my eyelids closely, starving for visions

  greedy for fresh words, I listen for the voices

  By night, I nightmare

  heater sinister, heavy bodies

  on stairs, impending doom of earthquake

  I unravel deep shivers

  mind tied w/ fretting

  the never-ending sigh

  By night, I lie still,

  hand on stomach, I follow ebbing breaths

  feel my heart beating in my head

  empty space inside my chest

  watch the glowing numbers until sky pales

  I wait for thoughts to settle, soft madness to descend