(After Bernadette and Brandon)

Keep going Lisa –
the people have
all gone – the very black
hole of the eye
haunts me its opacity
who wished you to be
a peach of sky – die
on the vine – it’s nothing
a great shame can’t fix
perhaps this is why – you write
a poem in the shower & exit wet
put it on
the dripping page
crackles in my
hands over head
a bird or plane
sings wishing me
wet fruit plenty of
poems & more
returning against my dark dreams
the future threatens me – may be
only childish laughter
in the next room –
joke of time
the oak tree rose
100 feet & spread 100
arms – strong the light
& shade pattern
in the baby brain
it's all they need
& milk & mothers & poems
today a miracle – mir 
age – who knows what
I could do besides
somewhere on earth
it's summer
time who knows what
happens in that poem
of time – friends
gather & go – a beer
but there is always
me for myself to keep
warm – what else
a ray through the
eye of morning
visiting my bald self

Lisa Rogal 

is a poet and teacher living in Brooklyn, NY. She is the author of LA BELLE INDIFFERENCE (Cuneiform Press), Feed Me Weird Things (Ugly Duckling Presse), MORNING RITUAL (United Artists Books), and The New Realities(Third Floor Apartment Press). She is co-editor of Long News Poetry & Poetics.