Tuesday poem #247 : James Meetze : CURTAILED

Ended as to en-dead 

to close a life.

What then opens after?

A supernova’s proof

loosed throughout 

the interstellar medium

like a spate of words

populates 

the comment thread

of one body politic

or another.

+

A mirrored door

conceals an unknown

organizational fold 

behind the known, or 

what we want to see.

+

In the space between

the road and the curb

in the space of memory

an arm of husky shadow

lifts off, up into the sun

as my father dispatches 

a rattlesnake’s head 

from the rivulet of its body

with a shovel.

+

Orpheus, too

lost his head

and went on

uncoiling a rope

of expletives

anyway.

James Meetze [Metz] is the author of three books of poetry, including Phantom Hour and Dayglo, which was selected by Terrance Hayes as winner of the 2010 Sawtooth Poetry Prize, both published by Ahsahta Press. He is also the editor, with Simon Pettet, of Other Flowers: Uncollected Poems by James Schuyler (FSG, 2010). He lives in San Diego, where he teaches creative writing and film studies at Ashford University and, with Ken White, writes for film and television.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan