You’re not from here; you’re poor You homeless, turbaned Sikh You refuse of Syria, you masses of Sinaloa’s shore You’re tempest-tossed; you’re not their best; you’re meek Take heed, beware lest ye be spanked as you exit through the golden door
Michael Kraft
Posted inArts + Scene
Lunch for One
Alone at Chili’s Lunch in the intertidal region, a table in the bar Men in camo ball caps pick at Buffalo wing salads and wolf Coors We’ll tell our wives the truth: salad for lunch Marla, the bartender, has chosen the music She’s piping in Billy Joel today,Uptown Girl Marla’s your basic brick shithouse Her […]
Posted inArts + Scene
I hear my pulse
I hear my pulse in dead of night wee hours it thrums so soft deep in my brain muted bassline from a distant prom dance endless endless and yet the dance must end
Posted inArts + Scene
Brew pub window
I lean into the brew pub window festooned with redwood burl Warming a barstool, drawing water figure 8s on the table A greying coonhound stares at me through the window panes His is a throne of vigilance in the bed of a monster pickup A cobalt blue Ford with a suitable amount of mud I […]
Posted inArts + Scene
On the Pier at Field’s Landing
On the Pier at Field’s Landing I spy two otters in the bay A mother and a daughter otter All sleek, tea-colored and athletic (It’s May and we think we’re kinetic?) They see me and they slip away Then I glimpse this fluid bat ray Soaring as they do through water Like the […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Predawn
in the grey moonless predawn on the coal asphalt soundless but a mutter of motor and tires you, silent as a black cat jaywalk in front of my alpine white BMW I see you, too late grey on black, hoodie on jeans swaddled in that black blanket flashes of a ghost white face and tube […]