5 poems
from Reel
A Poem for Your Walk This Morning
With the rabbit
in the backyard headlights last night
something long-tailed
muskrat possum
someone
would know; I don’t,
said Larkin & my love & I now
say it often.
With the poet
in the background things take
untrustworthy
singularity radiance
no one
would see; I don’t
if put near other
people often.
What’s it for
then? Solitary
non confinement
Envy
woke denying
the dream
didn’t count
your blessings, bitch,
one Ur text
message none
would call a [find a
foreign word]
besides you
love her
bedside you
aren’t that
[leave this blank] not
even for a second
honeymoon
suite ladies
be gentle
men my
ego’s in your hands
Habilitate
I didn’t mean to be at this party
first I was alone a public place
I had all these old dresses and was trying to find one
he hadn’t seen
the party grew larger
it was after all a party not just people
a high number now there must
be preferences
I was excited though to be at a party
I would tell my friends oh yeah I
was just at this party
I tried to find a dress that wouldn’t hurt his feelings
this one my dad bought me when I was twenty
I was paranoid the lady at the store
thought we were dating
I envy now what then I
stop that it’s wrong
it can help though
at this kind of party
I had this new dress but he had seen it
I had all these problems with my hands
and feet the doctor said I should
be ashamed
I gathered my things and moved away
from preferences
I kept looking over at them
I chose a dress he’d know I wasn’t wearing
for that reason
Michael Finnegan
re
begin
afoul
of all
intimacy
*
forgave all debts,
grand gestures, etc.
*
from here there shall can
only more no less
*
i was sober six years and six months and
*
bursting can spits
like in the
ad mists
her screen-lit face she
wipes her chin
*
re be
gin your ún
intén
did what
’s the french for
cry for
*
write sober edit sober makes john
imagine decomposing women in
the steam
goddamn, girlflesh
stay on!
*
the choice does seem lose one
or other mind
or matter
*
begin can
re can
know an old man named
poor
Coming Down
Aphorisms on stone benches
Neon in a gallery
Who was that was that
gone in long
return
thick with fantasy
a concentrated color rivuleting into water
filamenting
into water
what if we took no photos
eye contact with a child is like
what if we made no videos what
if the
were the art
the fingerprint what if
I were as neon sober as
aphoristic sober as what
not to be
small but larger
plastic pearls on a woman’s dress if you remembered
plastic pearls on a woman’s dress
Aphorisms in new asphalt
Neon against collision
who was
Colleen O'Brien's poetry and short fiction have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Antioch Review, Fence, Kenyon Review Online, and other journals. Her debut story collection, All Roads, was published by TriQuarterly Books in 2022. She is also the author of a chapbook, Spool in the Maze, from DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press.