Adam Deutsch
Before/After
A three-year-old is pushing his own
wind at birthday candles,
everyone talking to everyone else
in a candid phone photo, each
glass jar at windows’ sills
is a tiny ecosystem,
a cultivation walking through you,
an alphabetical city in waves of humid pressure.
You wake up outside
a layer of sediment, pebbled-
over dirt over moss over rocks,
over soil, and it’s clear: you’re habitual.
You should’ve known it was a holiday,
detoured a block and joined parade
floats staged to march through fire. Balconies
of iron radiate like propane turkey fryer stoves.
All the wing’d animals swoop for seed, insect, or fruit. Any blood.
Adam Deutsch is the author of a full-length collection, Every Transmission (Fernwood Press). He has work recently in Poetry International, Thrush, Juked, AMP Magazine, Broken Lens Journal, and Typo, and has a chapbook called Carry On (Elegies). He teaches in the English Department at Grossmont College and is the publisher of Cooper Dillon Books. He lives with his spouse and child in San Diego, CA. AdamDeutsch.com
Return to November 2023 Edition
A three-year-old is pushing his own
wind at birthday candles,
everyone talking to everyone else
in a candid phone photo, each
glass jar at windows’ sills
is a tiny ecosystem,
a cultivation walking through you,
an alphabetical city in waves of humid pressure.
You wake up outside
a layer of sediment, pebbled-
over dirt over moss over rocks,
over soil, and it’s clear: you’re habitual.
You should’ve known it was a holiday,
detoured a block and joined parade
floats staged to march through fire. Balconies
of iron radiate like propane turkey fryer stoves.
All the wing’d animals swoop for seed, insect, or fruit. Any blood.
Adam Deutsch is the author of a full-length collection, Every Transmission (Fernwood Press). He has work recently in Poetry International, Thrush, Juked, AMP Magazine, Broken Lens Journal, and Typo, and has a chapbook called Carry On (Elegies). He teaches in the English Department at Grossmont College and is the publisher of Cooper Dillon Books. He lives with his spouse and child in San Diego, CA. AdamDeutsch.com
Return to November 2023 Edition