Poetry | Word Riot

Mission District by Joseph Mains

Listen to a reading of “Mission District” by Joseph Mains.

Morning fog in bay windows pulse thighs gooseflesh wall I

We didn’t want to live previously loved So we drove to the harbor with our anatomy in cardboard boxes The

Listen to a reading of “Driveby” by Walter Bjorkman.

you awake and it’s nine past your time. nothing to do

I am jumping from pipe to pipe until the pier in Viña del Mar, Chile. Bolivia once owned some sea,

On this balcony I watch your hair flutter and your words fall and I watch your face spread and open

Downtown, Ann Arbor, Michigan, With a lot of People Sitting, and Eating

Every bite of an apple— the rotting process

In June the tide comes in before the dusk. There is an overpass beside the bay Where water moves in

Like a straw de-rooted and soaked riding with the currents ‘tis me without identity

save for motion and radiation that

Marigolds

Less gentle than drought and downpour, it’s genocide every year just for one chance of bloom.

I buried their

Do you mind the dead crows hanging upside down around your head? Can you fire a gun if you need