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The jets made their marks above us
The oceans swelled in the future of our
Crippled smiles
In the city the opera went broke
Only to be reborn in some kid’s head
Asleep in a rented room
With a shaved leg and a swollen breast
We hold our bandaged hands close
To our chests as we sleep
Turned from the alley echo
Frightened of the invisible hand
That caresses the face
And shakes us from sleep
What of the rain on other planets
Every creature adrift in its own biology
The world is the mind and will not let go
Claiming itself
In the extremes of hellish beauty
In a world of innocent thieves
Cities awaken in the falsehood of the boulevard,
Abstracted beyond the ellipse
That keeps returning us to the pictures
We hold in our hands,
Arias whispered into our minds.
George Eklund
George Eklund is Emeritus Professor at Morehead State University. Eklund has published widely in North American journals, including The American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Crazyhorse, Cimarron Review, Epoch, The Iowa Review, The Massachusetts Review, The New Ohio Review, The North American Review and Willow Springs, among others. Most recently his poems have appeared in The Lindenwood Review, Poetry Fix, Red Booth Review, and Rio Grande Review, as well as The Heartland Review, Descant, Redactions, and Adelaide.
Eklund’s full length volumes include The Island Blade (ABZ Press 2011) and Each Breath I Cannot Hold (Wind Publications 2011). Finishing Line Press published his chapbook, Wanting To Be an Element, in 2012, and his recent collection, Altar, in September 2019.