TWO POEMS by MIKE BAGWELL

Lithium

There’s splendid hunger in

these wantings. The field of desire

falls apart.

There’s no drowned man

in this poem, because that’d be too easy.

If anything interesting

is happening

I’ll forget to call, and then short circuit.

Why bother finding my hands

in your dreams?

Say that

one hundred ways.

I am.

I’m charging

up car batteries

with my resaying.


Scene from a Film

 

Two people sit down to a meal, but it’s just sparklers. They wait for them to go out, silently holding forks and knives, paper napkins tucked under their chin like domestic animals. When the fires burn out, they stand to do the dishes.

 

Mike Bagwell (he/him) is a writer and software engineer out of Philadelphia. He received an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence and has work published or forthcoming in HAD, BULL, Bodega Magazine, SOFTBLOW, Dark Sky Magazine, Whiskey Island, and others. Some have kindly nominated him for a Pushcart. He was the founding editor and designer of the currently deceased El Aleph Press. His work can be found at mikebagwell.me.

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