Ben Kopel

from Victory


BAR FIGHT #2

Only because I felt like it—the
ashtray kid with seven hearts

cocked. Lit up and clockwork.
A face across my face.

My hands across your face.
Your ex-girlfriend

adjusting her wig at the bar.
Like clockwork. Part mutilation.

Part victory. Part garden.
Like the apology of a city

in your hands and
across my face.


JOHN BERRYMAN DRUNK DIAL

No,

this is not that dream—

air slams air
& the author

he laughs &

me,

my smile gets smashed

::

No,

I’m not
falling

I’m not
nearly high enough


VALENTINE

All expectations
drum roll
and meridians
I am

scared sacred
having nothing
to prove
to no
one waiting

for what
is not
gone to
go off

and on
until the
sun catches
me crying
the light

sees me
singing the
phonebook to
me myself

this freak
an accident
a heart
of hearts

Ben Kopel’s Victory is forthcoming from H_NGM_N.