David Thacker
Selected Poems Online
"Willing," Plume
Hidden from all mothers’ eyes by blinded windows / glowing, I chase two neighbor sisters / up slides and platforms...
I always want to start with the metal stairs / that rose over our apartment door / to theirs. Each step, for traction in snow, was patterned // like chains of mouths, open and fanged.
If the eyes are balls of liquid that fill with light, / and if the light / from the bedroom ceiling fan, rocking gently / across the eyes of my daughter...
"Cravings," Subtropics
For wanting to house / creation’s smithy / her body shed / smolder and slag...
"Lamaze," Fogged Clarity
The instructor said to loosen / my knees, to wallow in my pain, / to low, even. My head and forearms / on her counter, I was shaking it slow / for my wife watching with the rest...
"I must be honest with myself: sometime," Fogged Clarity
in the future will be violence, sometime / a gun will appear in a public place / and bodies will fall, for here, where / my daughter four days old...
Lean back and watch the almost father flounder: / he’s become an enormous pair of eyes, / isn’t holding his wife’s hand...
