Edward Smallfield

 

 

night void message #507

 

everyone is swimming

in deep underground caverns

everyone is wearing

a wet bathing suit

except me

 

I can’t find you

a woman says she can help

in her office

she shows me

an old-fashioned typewriter

that morphs into

a wardrobe

made of stained glass

she invites me

to step inside

 

 

 

night void message #547

 

waking you

asleep in a chair

are you the you that is you?

 

 

night void message #771

 

a thing

eight feet tall

on two legs

drops from the trees

a creature

from a movie

wrapped in thick

soiled gauze strips

am I afraid?

the thing

bounds away

into the darkness

 

 

 

night void message #833

 

in high school

watching

football practice

in the rain

wondering

whether I should join

my friends

on the field

I walk away

into the rain

 

 

 

night void message #331

 

writing a poem

lirios

a personal sky

days & leaves

no other residue

 

 

 

Edward Smallfield is the author of to whom it may concern, equinox, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (a book-length collaboration with Doug MacPherson), and The Pleasures of C. He is also the author of five chapbooks, mostly recently sargasso, from Dancing Girl Press. His poems have appeared in Barcelona INK, Denver Quarterly, e-poema.eu, Five Fingers Review, New American Writing, Páginas Rojas, talking about strawberries all the time, Touch the Donkey, where is the river: a poetry experiment, and many other magazines and websites. He is a coeditor at parentheses and at Apogee Press. He has participated in poetry conferences in Delphi, Paou, Paros, and Sofia, and lives in Barcelona with his wife, the poet Valerie Coulton.