Poem of the Month
#88 earth

By jasper avery

Published on November 5, 2018

you fill the water bottle
you found in the trash
with pondwater in the field
at recess
because it has been raining
and you like this

water is full
of mosquito larvae and water fleas
and you like this

they squirm around
water fleas swim the most beautiful
and you like this

you show your dad
your dad shows school administration
school administration
orders insecticides be sprayed
into the pond
you do not like this

all you wanted was small pond
of bottle full of magic

More Poetry

Yorick

Bookending our VHS library In the basement closet, beside ski suits, Is our family’s one-man Capuchin Crypt, A skull Dad kept from med school that just sits, Waiting to be played with, bored, unburied.

Salter Street Strike

One with the strength of many
alone in the distant North End.
People before profit.

it’s a seemingly endless descent.
Marlyn’s streets do not resemble
one with the strength of many

morbid singularities
entirely unaware of
people before profit

Postscript(s)

The fall of ’47 I was 25 and still living in Viluta. What made me stay so long? What made me linger in that nothing place, that hamlet of ten houses?