my favorite poems (incomplete list)

• February & my love is in another state by José Olivarez
• God by Michael Bazzett
• Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• The Orange by Wendy Cope

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He Visits My Town Once a Year
by Amir Khusrow

He visits my town once a year.
He fills my mouth with kisses and nectar.
I spend all my money on him.
Who, girl, your man?
No, a mango.

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On A Train
by Wendy Cope

The book I’ve been reading
rests on my knee. You sleep.

It’s beautiful out there—
fields, little lakes and winter trees
in February sunlight,
every car park a shining mosaic.

Long radiant minutes,
your hand in my hand,
still warm, still warm.

from If I Don't Know by Wendy Cope, published by Faber and Faber, 2001

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This Bus Stop Was A Coral Reef, Once
by Megan Arkenberg

Twenty thousand years ago, she said,
this whole city was the floor of an ocean
six thousand feet deep.
That's why when you put your ear
to the shell of an airplane, you hear waves.
That's why the ghosts in your apartment
are so big and hungry.

From Star*Line magazine 36.3, Aug. 2013