Honorable Mention Academy of American Poets Prize
Published: April 22, 2010

I.

all together now—

long first syllable

(l(eeeeeeeeee)eave me alone)

staccato puncture

(to(ast is what the old man

smells before he croaks)

st(op following me

every

where

i

go)).

II.

Li-

nger in lost doorways.

Tram-tossed slush on sidewalks

under cinema awnings.

Head resting on the wrong chest.

Too old

too old

too old

for me.

Damage control: all eyes

watching sometime after midnight.

Sudden snowfall shields against passing

voyeurs, turns a mix-matched pair

into statues (i.e. we freeze to death,

two blurred shadows grasping at torsos,

warmth leaking from our mingled lines).

III.

once again, the dogs howl:

leeeeeeeeee—

(eafing through memory

brings disaster. (hide thoughts

here, little one.

(—stash them—) yes,

like, that))

—tost.

IV.

Revenant

The golem is here.

That block creature of our design,

wrath-animated stone making ruins

of internal landscapes.

See him? He overturns the church,

its steeple slicing us in two.

Folkloric champion of dark spaces,

he rises against his creators. He is our shared

voice-box, screaming names and smothering

love-objects beneath colossal stomps.

It is for us the city burns, but we too are

consumed. Charred vessels left behind.

We, who called him forth with a word,

return to our dust in the same breath.