YOU ARE

a truck driver

among florists, a wrestler

among hairdressers, a construction worker

among interior decorators.

Yet much more macho

than these beefy studs, you yield

as a violet nods

to a nosy bee.

You are a white dove

in the red cage

of my heart, an orgasm’s incandescent wire,

wine’s clarity, dry, yet smooth,

a hallucinogenic juggler

with iridescent flares, a marble goat

in the Secret Room

of the Naples Museum, what I wanted

to see and hear and touch, and why I sleep

with no one else

on the crew.

ASYLUM SONGS

Limbo

That familiar name means nothing

at all, as if amnesia wiped the slate

or a neurosurgeon snipped the nerve

that remembered him, my heroin.

An interstate and a clock erased the rest,

the emotional fingerprint, the die

of his body stamped

on mine. I live a conscious coma now.

Loop

The RN asked

if I felt the needle’s cool paralysis.

I answered, No, dissolving

to invisible ink

with a sigh.

An old, case-hardened doctor said,

“I now pronounce this patient dead.”

If a soul has a destination, too,

perhaps I’ll resurrect

in you.

ABOUT:

This summer, Double Back Press (imprint of Sundress Publications) will re-issue Ken Anderson’s first novel, Someone Bought the House on the Island: A Dream Journal, Finalist in the 1999 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Island of Wak-Wak Press (Orebro, Sweden) just released his The Ward at Twilight: Goth Poems, nominee for the 2025 Elgin Award. Red Ogre Review Books (L.A.) and Liquid Raven Media recently released his The Goose Liver Anthology (Mother Goose Meets Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology). His first poetry book was The Intense Lover. Coffin Bell Journal nominated his poem “Blood Quartet” for the 2024 Best of the Net anthology. He was a Finalist in the 2021 Saints and Sinners poetry contest. His poetry manuscript A Sweet Oblivious Antidote was a Semifinalist for the 2024 Washington Prize." Check out his Amazon author page here.

EDITOR'S SONG PAIRING: Glow Kit --- Invisible Ink