Burial Glances & Other Poems
By Michael Igoe
Burial Glances
They lean on a cornerstone
corroded badly with age.
They have children
they have moisture.
Trafficking news of the world
they dispense their paltry sums.
I must remain flying,
I must soon respond
to abandoned children
who grow old in games.
I stand on two feet
palms outstretched.
They hand me the shovel
I break out in cold sweats.
Romeo’s Gesture
He has needs
for all things
made from wax.
In ways he stimulates
a buzz bomb violation
that clears up congestion.
The point of his program
is to be sure of the meaning
of chain smokers in newsreels.
He watches the hips of leather,
their false and supple styles
while they chase harebrained,
while they shoot dice games
in an attempt to unearth saints
made completely out of plaster.
It seems like much more
than the unseen presence
that governs his lenses.
He winces at the sight
of his child brides
warmed by tobacco.
At Best A Hermit
You can meet with me,
on red letter days,
in hermits’ disguises.
March in an army
know the thrill
a mile a minute.
We live in a world
of caress without heat
as you link my arm,
you walk beside me.
In a checkered dress
you pause on a corner
obeying the red signal.
Across the silver forest
in trembling embraces
we outline contentment.
We are suspect of light
but we find it innocent.
Yet you are a hermit.
A few saplings rise
intrepid and vital.
They hatch plots
by neutral design.
Quick Exit
All my foes
make their way
to a back room.
They walk in a throng
savvy heads unwilling
to give up a single jot.
They brush off rain
they find their table.
They stare out a window
blue film surrounds
seeps through cracks,
in a pane of inanimate glass.
They intend on harming Eden
but are sure they belong there.
Somewhere they can flatten
instead of lying which way.
Both soles of my feet
begin to grow tender.
I walk out the door
suddenly sure why
they are so angry.
They ran out of money.
Michael Igoe: City boy, Chicago-now-Boston, neurodiverse, instructor at Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation. Erstwhile scholar, cat enthusiast. Longtime member of the Democratic National Committee. Regular contributor to Spare Change News (Cambridge, MA). Enthusiast of urban realism and surrealism.