Gary Witt Poems

You have your game-face on again;
The don’t-mess-with-me face that comes
With its own combative attitude.
Not pleased with being pleased,
...

He said I confess that I doubt.
I want the truth and have no desire
To whisper prayerfully into a hole.
So, neither believing nor disbelieving,
...

Bricks heaped upon lumber,
Laid upon lungs to extricate
Evil from thoughts perceived
To have turned from God.
...

He’d grown quite tired by then, but still he tried
To appease or even please that ghost whose voice
Pursued him, critical of every move—
Pursued him easily, relentlessly;
...

I would pray then at my bedside,
Fingers tightly intertwined,
Eyes straining to close around themselves,
Thoughts thrown with all my strength—
...

She coaxed him into lessons
With a tug on his sleeve
And a kiss that tasted of
Dark bitter chocolate—
...

Whom did you leave behind, Virginia,
When the voices summoned you
Into the river and you strode down,
Stout stones filling the pockets of your overcoat?
...

Stubbornly floundering
Between both and neither,
I am young for I still have heroes
Who have not been shamed,
...

If innocence and wonder together
Are the true foundation of wisdom
(And they are, you know they are)
Then innocence has not been lost
...

When she reached on tip-toe
To pull down the hazelnut
From above the La Marzocco,
Her shirt would ride up to reveal
...