Friday Oct 04

MaggieGlover.jpg Maggie Glover earned a BA from Denison University and an MFA from West Virginia University, where she was awarded the James Paul Brawner Poetry Award in 2007. Her poems have appeared in The Journal, Smartish Pace, Controlled Burn, 32 Poems, and other literary journals. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
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An Explanation (You Hurt Me So You Owe Me)
 
 
That fingerless September, I held on
 
to whatever was left, which wasn’t much:
 
gratuitous palm, silly forearm. I asked,
 
Where does anything go?
 
Love, I am good with strangers. I am an instant friend.
 
Behind the owl barn , I listened to a man
 
tell me about his garden of bruise-colored cacti, 
 
their brutal leaves and difficult arrangements.
 
That night, shirt open, he panted like a mung fish,
 
nightmarish and ugly. Please—
 
I left him there. I found you later,
 
crouched on the porch steps,
 
holding a magnifying glass to the sun,
 
burning holes into the wood because you wanted to.
 
I let you. What can I say? You stuck.
 
 
 
 
Barabbas the Snowman
 
 
 
The world is smuggled white.
 
We roll the crystals into trapped galaxies: 
 
a root-nose, mouth of pennies, black coal
 
to stare and stare. My niece wraps
 
two scarves around his neck,
 
silver buttons along the stomach bend.
 
Branches sag to touch us,
 
one thousand thumbs.