poetry – Page 4 – Chris Bevens

In the Fall We are There to Stay

Paper writing turns so kind A familiar mad chatter racing to the left side of the page I think you see outside the tenement walls of verse, I think you fly Soar margins soar FreshContinue reading “In the Fall We are There to Stay”

Wed, July 9, 1998 at Folsom Coffee Shop

Sitting at counter man with beard and ponytail who was here yesterday here again having homefries eggs over easy (#5) Large ice tea with two Equals dressed in work shirt (Russ) with paper “Beartooth Beer” ball cap— AH my cherry pie and coffee at a quarter to eight just arrived I open one Grade AContinue reading “Wed, July 9, 1998 at Folsom Coffee Shop”

Poem Written in Sleep

Observe the fool who having heard the clownly hooves is moved to stir glancing windoward, he smiles picks up the phone and dials A tunely call to roll a pleasant blurb

Mountainbiker’s Prayer

I like to be undressed at the Subaru’s hatch, pulling on shorts and peering into the woods for trails and sounds of life and signs of riding. To lube chain and dial-in brakes, shifting, saddle height, alone at the trailhead or with buddies, talking smack, sneaking a hit, stretching legs. To attack the trail andContinue reading “Mountainbiker’s Prayer”

Deathbed of Realism

Superchum iron rats on grapes and postcards Sometimes, my oral china virgin, I read in the dark haunted house I could aim, but not now dusty and preoccupied with my childhood

Villanueva With Pine Beetles

Look into me when you need me even as my fears crawl stiff-legged in exoskeletons Look into me when you need me red lights flash in the trees and a faint dispatch squawk or maybe a buzzing from within light in this Villanueva cabin Rachel, look into me when you need me french doors’ thinContinue reading “Villanueva With Pine Beetles”

Early Snow Boulder

Snow hunched trees framed in a wooden window porch Leafy cold mounds distributed evenly weigh down limbs What childhood nights turned under nubby covers snagging dry hands? First solitudes buried beneath America’s blue day Yellow aspen leaves under new snow

Are We Lovers Aided

Are we lovers aided by a lot of what used to be? Tell all your stories and dance around don’t be fooled you’re on solid ground for it’ll open wider yawn as we aspire, then where the hell are we? Should love be to save two? Now who knows who’s blue? Concurrence is deranged lookingContinue reading “Are We Lovers Aided”

Empty Fear

1 Adhere to words’ haste a parasite darkening the host Adhere lost sentence naming image— how narrowing, the name Adhere! Ancient treasure lies Adhere wasted words

Poem for Mumia Abu-Jamal

and a businessman, William Singletary VietNam vet, black claims to have seen the cop go down pop-pop, two shots at close range Lays the gun under the VW Bug pulled over, this the passenger, a third man not Mumia, runs east down Locust Street Faulkner’s on the ground, the cop, when Mumia arrives and bendsContinue reading “Poem for Mumia Abu-Jamal”