It wasn’t just the way he ate his toast
..................................................................changed lanes
..................................................................changed lanes
or squeezed between
two women
on the elevator
two women
on the elevator
He looked too often toward the sky
........................................................and talked too much
........................................................and talked too much
with his hands
At meetings
.......................the space between executive heads
.......................the space between executive heads
...............................................................................asked to be filled
with the world
caving in
At lunch
.......................birds swooped down
...........................................................on his crumbs
.......................birds swooped down
...........................................................on his crumbs
the way he’d trained them
he couldn’t
find space
for it
all
It made him sad
He was a doomsday prophet
He was up to his eyeballs
.......................................flooded
...................................................with everything fallen
....................................................................................or falling
and try as he mighthe couldn’t
find space
for it
all
It made him sad
when the women stepped away
___________
Kathleen Flenniken's poems have appeared in Poetry, The Iowa Review, The Southern Review, Mid-American Review, Farm Pulp, Prairie Schooner, and Poetry Daily. She is the recipient of a 2005 Literary Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a 2003 Literary Fellowship from Artist Trust, along with grants from Artist Trust and Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. Her first collection of poems, Famous, winner of the 2005 Prairie Schooner Prize, was released by University of Nebraska Press in 2006, and has been named a Notable Book of the Year by the American Library Association (ALA)
___________
Kathleen Flenniken's poems have appeared in Poetry, The Iowa Review, The Southern Review, Mid-American Review, Farm Pulp, Prairie Schooner, and Poetry Daily. She is the recipient of a 2005 Literary Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a 2003 Literary Fellowship from Artist Trust, along with grants from Artist Trust and Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. Her first collection of poems, Famous, winner of the 2005 Prairie Schooner Prize, was released by University of Nebraska Press in 2006, and has been named a Notable Book of the Year by the American Library Association (ALA)
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