TWO POEMS

{as previously indicated, I have no photo of myself at the MLA "off site" reading -- So, here in lieu of photographic self-representation, are the two minutes worth of poetry I read in Philadelphia}

Hula Hoops


1

A dance that must be done
Describes two
Interlocked ellipses
Got to maintain
Uphold the hoop
It’s
The tips
Trembling
Whammo

2

Two describe a
Whirling möbius
The dancer bent double
Or else an armature
Amateur engine
Idling

3

Three leave
One limb free
Awkward still
Skips
The ground a
Beat




4

Or more’s
Solitary
Each a pit
Stacked
A dervish’s
Wobbly cell
Who is that
Condemned child
Inside those
Plastic haloes

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Untitled

Immortality
Seems so
Slight
A project


You’d think
We’d think

Something better


Of ourselves