Max Reif Poems

Yesterday in a letter
I playfully scolded
an old friend,
...

The demolition crews are out,
And twice this week, I saw
Crunching into brick and steel,
A huge crane's T-rex maw.
...

He wears a suit,
she wears a dress.
He goes to work.
You know the rest:
...

My drug of choice is food, while my wife
prefers the smoky kiss of cigarettes.

We have a truce now, whereby I don't nag her:
...

Went to Kinko's last night
to copy my manuscripts. Ha!
Everybody else thought their work
was as important as mine—
...

Wherever there are rules,
which is to say everywhere,
gradations of warnings and penalties
lead to a certain point
...

Today the little bird
is let out of his cage.
He doesn't know
if his wings will still fly,
...

Froggy woke up early and in bed he lay,
Wonderin’ what he’d take to school for lunch today.
Mama came into his room to said,
“Here’s your lunchbox, Froggy. Now please get out of bed.”
...

The hurricane hits,
You batten down your hatches,
Try to secure everything.
...

Sweet summers we stayed outdoors
till we could no longer tell
the trees from the dark between them
and a brigade of fireflies had failed
...