Morgan Michaels Poems

Hello, I'm a parrot.
and if you doubt it
I'll say it again:
Hello, I'm a parrot.
...

Happiness.
It is soonest found in useful distraction-
(the better, if socially sanctioned)
Look for usefulness, find distraction
...

Shortly before noon of the following day they reached Cordoba, where they stopped to change horses. The old ones were happy, recognizing the inn and whinnied loudly, feeling a bath and a dinner in store. A concierge pulled open the door and Señora Salomin stepped down, preceded by lengths of taffeta. She meant to soften the rigors of travel by resting a few days in town, she said, with friends. Thus, she could avoid fatigue and arrive at Madrid fresh. The fat man had wakened and the three got off to stretch and wish Señora Salomin godspeed, as was proper. Each embraced her and kissed her lightly on either cheek; she was well-kissed by the time the fat man finished. She nodded stiffly to Senior Perez and wished him well, as if to say she was unimpressed by his argument but un-offended. He bowed cooly in return, their debate ending a draw. But she bid Ramon a warm goodbye and gave him the address of her casa in Madrid.

'Come to opening night', she urged, 'as my personal guest', citing the date.
...

Shoplift wind chime shop
lift wind chime shoplift
wind chime shoplift wind
chime shoplift wind chime
...

In this (for sale) photo a lanky youth
(body arched in glaring profile
head thrown back cockily, lips pursed,
leans out from a wall into a dark allee.
...

Yes, from its canted perspective
you take from the image the sense
that the ground is immensely far down-
dazzlingly so, in fact,
...

Like the Meander, shirking its former mouth
its once-busy basin silted-in
the brain's once-pulsing channels, thickening thin
leave the shores they watered in a drouth;
...

I can't believe I found your address, again.
Your number's not in the book, I guess you know.
Too bad our time together was so brief.
I meant what I said, though, I'd like to know you more.
...

It is evening, the clouds mass goldenly in the West.
I have been doing garden patrol-
the perfect antidote to a long day's work.
By this time there has been considerable cooling
...