Morgan Michaels Poems

I want to die quite naked
alone and fast asleep
a pillow underneath my head
a sheet about my feet.
...

That even the Constitution itself, laid flat
Must seem to a gnat, in certain terms,
Like a mindscape by Hieronymous Bosch
Full of imps and avanging angels
...

If all of the bottles we dropp in the sea
were put bottom to mouth one by one
to the moon they would go
it's been proven, you know
...

Hustled onto First overnight
the trees have arrived
from Quebec
van-borne via veldts,
...

'I can't believe it, ' murmured old Valette, in toney Italian.'The nerve! '
His secretary's quip was earthier. He revered the old man and his crazy bravery.
'Who does she think she is? Thanks for nothing. Can she think of noone's interest but her own? A chip off the old block. Scandal! '
And so on...
...

On the great, Marquinia table, inlaid pink and orange, he tossed the mockery bearing the English queen's seal with its manifold stamps and fancy ribbons.
'Thanks. Thanks, thanks. Much indebted... Thanks for...thanks...thanks, thanks...etc.'
-Of course. Don't mention it.
The envoys, who delivered the parchment but couldn't read it, were feasting on plaice and drinking Sicilian wine in the hall, below.
...

ear a
theory, trunk
a tear
redacted to a sphere
...

It is the last day of the year. Long live the Year
dark and drear and full of cheer
wound up like a top, in cellophane, clear,
like a doll, like a package of new batteries, I fear.
...

No one knows what to think or say
everything's over, nothing is done
everything's frozen under the sun
there has never been such a quiet day.
...

I know you want the best for me-
and with a generosity that's hardly modern,
a selflessness that vanished long ago
like footprints in a snowy alley
...