The Books on the Shelf

Witnessed by these books on the shelf,

Bishop, H.D., Stevens, Valéry, Amichai, Wright, Plath, Lee,

Heaney, Kinnell, Whitman, Brooks, Neruda, Milosz, Ginsberg,

Blake, Bly, Levertov, Yeats, Vuong, Hughes, Mansfield, 

Apollinaire, Shakespeare, Joyce, Paz, Roethke, 

Eliot, Williams, Miss Moore, Marilyn Chin

and that is just the beginning

now we hum along together

Mark completes his student loan consolidation

form, reads every line

link our applications

insides regret and sink

Covid vaccine headache

shortness of breath 

The man John stands in the doorway

dances his 16th birthday 

plans, either Bullet Train or

Wakanda Forever

Sleep finally comes

to announce it