Five Poems

Five of my poems
now appear in BafterC,
Vol. 4 No. 1.

It is published and sold through
Book Thug.

Hooray.

A Haiku for Better Days

A sad Sunday meal,
the last of my stale pretzels
resemble wishbones.

The Hypnotist

The woman behind
the suggestive Hypno-Specs
has hollow
gear-shaped eyes.
They tumble & swoon
beneath her furrowed
forehead
like a pair of
rabid, unlicensed
poodles.
Above her spinning sockets,
her eyebrow-lines perch,
barren and drawn
and arched,
like a gothic wrought iron
gate
guarding a haunted
Spirograph
factory.

The Doors

Ryan's poem The Doors
will be appearing in the forthcoming
issue of
The Toronto Quarterly.

Hooray.

A Poem for Stop Loss Day

Ryan Bird is a Soldier
of Love

who still wakes
up drunk
with post-traumatic
dreams

about
high school

dances--

the gut tender
shellshock
of
improvised explosives

still pungeant
on the roadside
air,

like a day-old
peace
lily

corsage.