My selves are like several card decks
all mashed into one. Pick a self,
any self, a jack, a heart,
rarely a diamond. I may not
recognize my self, sometimes rock,
sometimes scissors.
People call you a phony
if you can’t be yourself. Maybe
they have one self, carved
like Mount Rushmore.
Today while visiting
my Lady Margaret passion flower vine,
a red star smaller than my hand,
I saw a snake, a funny little squirt.
That’s one of my selves,
not staying in one place,
until he stops to sun
and moves on.
won the 2014 Blue Light Book Prize for Bend of Quiet which they published
in 2015. Also in 2015 Urban Farmhouse Press released his book, Booking Rooms in
the Kuiper Belt. His work has appeared in Hawaii Review, Nimrod, Mudfish,
Indiana Review, The Fiddlehead, Word Riot, and elsewhere.
