Malak Mattar, Untitled (detail), 2024, charcoal on paper
Abeyance
Always it’s putting two things together
that don’t necessarily belong there
—Gerald Stern, “Two Things”
a voice on the corner
shouting in the face of night
liquor bickering with conscience
sleep with desire
a picket fence with a gate
you might step over
kitchen windows cranked
open to the street
and the smell of lilacs
entering like a ghost
searching for a single
hesitation to haunt
Bruce Willard
Bruce Willard’s poems have appeared in Poet Lore, Harvard Review, AGNI, Cortland Review, Ploughshares, Salamander and 5 A.M. as well as on NPR’s Writer’s Almanac. He has two collections of poems, Holding Ground (2013) and Violent Blues (2016); both published by Four Way Books. His third collection, Bond, is forthcoming. More information is available at www.brucewillard.com. (updated 10/2018)