When my airways are inflamed I write myself a letter
I’m pleased to know even the rocks aren’t immortal
I take a step back I open my pockets
I am completely rational like a 19th century ghost
I make a potato stamp to be remembered by
If the children laugh I have a dream
Mention openness and trust to a coyote
You see the sunrise behind a moose
I don’t doubt the water has its own ideas
It is a model of attachment and resurrection
Nobody wants to be rain falling in November
Matthew Rohrer is the author of Hummock in the Malookas: Poems (National Poetry Series Books), Satellite, A Green Light, Rise Up, and A Plate of Chicken. With Joshua Beckman he wrote Nice Hat. Thanks. and recorded the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. With Joshua Beckman and Anthony McCann he wrote the secret book Gentle Reader! It is not for sale. Octopus Books published his action/adventure chapbook-length poem They All Seemed Asleep in 2008.
Writer’s Recommendations:
Novels in Three Lines by Felix Feneon.
The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen.
What the Right Hand Knows by Tom Healy.