Michael Bazzett
Minus One
When I die the world will be nothing
minus one.
And somewhere
among the crustal continents
there will be another added
who has yet to know
the rumble and glide
of skating over black ice
holding cold water like a carapace
buckling and groaning
into gunshots to find the more exact
shape to hold water
while snow
dizzies the white sky.
Michael Bazzett’s poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, 32 Poems, Hayden’s Ferry Review and Best New Poets. He is the author of The Unspoken Jokebook, recently published by Burning River Press, and his verse translation of the Popol Vuh is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two children.
Return to May 2014 Edition
When I die the world will be nothing
minus one.
And somewhere
among the crustal continents
there will be another added
who has yet to know
the rumble and glide
of skating over black ice
holding cold water like a carapace
buckling and groaning
into gunshots to find the more exact
shape to hold water
while snow
dizzies the white sky.
Michael Bazzett’s poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, 32 Poems, Hayden’s Ferry Review and Best New Poets. He is the author of The Unspoken Jokebook, recently published by Burning River Press, and his verse translation of the Popol Vuh is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two children.
Return to May 2014 Edition