BRIAN LE LAY // Two Poems
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Breakfast
On Father's Day at the tavern Every man and woman is named John, Maybe a few Joes sprinkled in, A timeless Walter coming or going Has a story about an Oldsmobile He met in a bar, dreamed a dizzying dream Of marrying, but she rusted from Underneath and died that first winter. I tell sardonic jokes about paper cups And orange juice. Nobody understands. I'm too new. Left-handed in spirit, Makes sense to align to the left of things. Everybody at the lodge who'd been Present at Valley Forge forked his eggs, Chalked me up to "an age thing," Got a good guffaw out of it. I've never been ashamed. I've been angry. These laminated menus were made For the former, not lamentation. Those flowers they sell at the door, Guilt, gasping for water, dead By the time you find a seat. They say you'll look back fondly Through a periscope, romanticize A life was pure suffering powder Distilled from a leaf. A boy I remember, Motivated only to fistfights, near-expulsions. Another became a boardwalk cop, Lived with grandparents In a strange cottage, narrow corridor, Lit a Welcome rug on fire. No light, Even that brought in dark jars From Dubai, could illuminate Those old rooms. We're fascinated By ourselves. For now, That's all we agree on. Counting Ships Distracted from counting The white masts of ships Framed by the long window Of a passing train A businessman in brown Crocodile shoes, cast-iron Eagle crest on his lapel Sharpens the creases In his dawn-blue slacks Between index finger And thumb. Sunlight Flashes in shapes Like construction paper scraps, jagged and fleeting Like the frames of a silent film In which the women weep In that silent unserious Glowing way only lost Starlets can. We pass Along a lake which With its early morning waves Is a pair of crumpled dungarees A comic strip of power-lines And breakfast shops Passing much too quickly To count the ships. |
Brian Le Lay's poems have appeared in Uppagus, The Blue Hour, Drunk Monkeys, and Gutter Eloquence. His chapbook, The Virtues of Concrete, is forthcoming from ELJ Publications in 2014.
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