{"id":7059,"date":"2016-02-03T19:10:46","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T02:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=7059"},"modified":"2016-02-03T19:10:46","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T02:10:46","slug":"two-poems","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=7059","title":{"rendered":"Two poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Good<\/strong><\/p>\n

I Saw You There Dickinson (#1027)<\/strong>
\n
\nI saw you there Dickinson
\nRoiling about the Gluten-Free
\nOrganics \u2013 tapping on Canteloupan
\nHues to waft the Possibility \u2013<\/p>\n

and so it seemed you did Stop for Death \u2013
\nFilling your Cart with Grass-Fed Meat \u2013
\nSquinting at Steel-Cut Oats, Manager\u2019s Specials
\nAlong the Tip of each End-Capped Aisle \u2013 Feet<\/p>\n

dashing a Rest \u2013 a Breath \u2013 a Connexion
\nHolding Potato-Rough skin \u2013 a Loaf
\nof Bread in the glassy self-checkout line \u2013
\nYour Narrow Face wrinkled Aloof \u2013<\/p>\n

Stretching for a Roof of WonderBread
\nand then Scampering \u2013 with the Wine \u2013
\nShrinking from Fear at the Attendant
\nWho asked you to Self-Identify \u2013<\/p>\n

and in your gray Purse \u2013
\nyou held \u2013 four Quatrains of Cash
\nand a Band of unpublished Poems
\nWrit on unpaid power Bills \u2013 Stashed \u2013<\/p>\n

and when it came Time
\nto type \u2013 the Item \u2013into the Scanner
\nI wept there Emily \u2013
\nas we Poets must Weep and Stammer<\/p>\n

to one another \u2013when our
\nCredit Cards run Out \u2013
\nand upon the Touch Screen flashes
\nRegular or Organic \u2013 routed<\/p>\n

by the Avocado lies we Impress
\nupon our Screens \u2013 offering our Shopper\u2019s Cards \u2013
\nWondering at Once \u2013 how the Points
\nWe Acquire \u2013 Amount in our Bags Beyond \u2013<\/p>\n

Success<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It comes down to possession. I thought this watching Sidney Crosby score on a breakaway. It was a beautiful thing to see. When I say beautiful, I mean it looked routine: the way he bullied past a defender and snapped the puck backhand behind Anti Niemi. Crosby is famous for his rituals and repetitions. Some players do this weird thing where they lick their stick tape. Goalies are particularly sublime. Glenn Hall, Mr. Goalie, allegedly vomited before each game, crediting this emesis, or lack thereof, for each victory or loss. Patrick Roy would go out of his way to avoid skating on blue lines. Drills offer opportunities to master rudiments. What is it apart from the careful reconstitution of well-learned feats? To force oneself to vomit. To hope for the best.<\/p>\n

MIKE GOOD<\/strong> is pursuing an M.F.A. at the Jackson Center for Creative Writing at Hollins University, and serves as Assistant Editor for the Hollins Critic<\/em>. He is from Pittsburgh, PA, where he helped to found the After Happy Hour Review<\/em> and Hour After Happy Hour Writing Workshop<\/em>. His poetry has appeared in Collision<\/em>, The New Yinzer<\/em>, Poetry Fix<\/em> and is forthcoming in Nerve Cowboy<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike Good I Saw You There Dickinson (#1027) I saw you there Dickinson Roiling about the Gluten-Free Organics \u2013 tapping on Canteloupan Hues to waft the Possibility \u2013 and so it seemed you did Stop for Death \u2013 Filling your … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":7057,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7059","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P15duy-1PR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7059"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7074,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7059\/revisions\/7074"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}