8 poems
HOW IT IS
my glass
ghost dad
sees his glass I
collapse:
you said
joy
you said
be
night
I'm writing
inside death, I'm
in the room, dead
again, dead again,
you cry
(God)
“home”:
come, have
you come,
have
you come
to sing
to
me
bless
anyone, bless
anyone, all
night I was
your hair
WE DREAMED WE WERE ALIVE
WE DREAMED WE WERE ALIVE
empire in his
shit
empire in his
spit
WE DREAMED WE WERE ALIVE
America
my parasite
my seizure
breaking
word
and
world
WE DREAMED WE WERE ALIVE
and “live
like it’s your party,” big pharma,
big murder, state terror, so
drunk as the moon, so willows,
so lost, soul of bullets, soul of
cash, everything is dying, dying,
waiting for the time of love
WE DREAMED WE WERE ALIVE
lightning is as lightning does: I
think we’re alone now, your chest
is music, my mouth is rain: soft
moon, soft hills, and autumn soft
as cream or memory:
WE DREAMED WE WERE ALIVE
drunk like coins, like coins: our
lifestyle is wrecking the planet for
Christ’s sake, ghost mom’s drunk
like a gold coin, ghost dad’s drunk
like a gold coin: the tv says the tv:
the hole in the job, the hole in the
house
WE DREAMED WE WERE ALIVE
small
burst
of death
spins
in soft
air
WE DREAMED WE WERE ALIVE
and all the lies in any town: dearest
brother, I can't cry, can't autocorrect,
we open sky: dearest brother I can't
go, this is the way the world ends:
just tear it up and throw it in the fire,
just tear it up and throw it in the
truth: we were always dust: we don't
get out:
Joseph Lease's critically acclaimed books of poetry include The Body Ghost (Coffee House Press, 2018), Testify (Coffee House Press, 2011), and Broken World (Coffee House Press, 2007). Lease’s poems "'Broken World' (For James Assatly)" and "Send My Roots Rain" were anthologized in Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology. Lease’s poem "'Broken World' (For James Assatly)" was anthologized in The Best American Poetry (Robert Creeley, Guest Editor). His poem “Free Again (Why don’t people)” was published in The New York Times. Lease is a Professor of Writing and Literature at California College of the Arts.