Francis Poole

FACE OFF


Finally
...

I was about to cross
the wooden footbridge
over the mill race
when a large Grackle
...

When I was eight
I moved into a new foster home
with my suitcase and
three painted turtles.
...

SUNDAY MORNING 2020

To the traveler in space
there is no sense of movement
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TRAIN TO DRADEG


Standing at the back of the last coach
...

In ancient astrology
Dark Gemini is the opposite
of its twin Light Gemini.
Dark Gemini is a deceitful huckster,
...

What do de date matter
What do it matter

How the wind don't blow
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POSTCARD INSTRUCTIONS

Let us know the size of suite
With its treasure of amenities
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WAR OF THE WORLDS
I am profoundly optimistic about nothing.
--Francis Bacon
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OCCURRENCE

A very long time ago
when I was five years old
...

GHOST SPRINGS DREAM


Dropped off a boat into Ghost Springs
...

WHAT I'M ABOUT TO SAY


What I'm about to say
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You'd be here soon, you said.
So I closed the blinds
Put on Villa Lobos and
Stretched out on the sofa
...

An Eskimo looks
on the long bright day
and licks
his ivory knife
...

On the white deck
of the boat
I lay drifting in and
out of sleep
...

Lying on my side
in the sun
I see an olive tree
growing out of
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Is a memory a thought?
Is a feeling a thought?
Are they even worth a penny?
What part of the brain has a thought?
...

I was wrong
and didn't know it
I was right and
didn't know it
...

Years ago when
I thought I had something to say
I had to try to excoriate,
denigrate others first.
...

On June 6
if you go for a walk barefoot
along the tide's edge
where the waves
...