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Jeffrey Kingman
WE CAN ALL LISTEN
Your essay is snobbish, as if most people are boring
. and your audience stupid.
This one thinks a shadowy glow
. (a thought you’ll never think)
and this one will tell you
. (if you bother to ask)
her favorite bracelet makes her resilient.
Hear the black-haired woman? expectant face
. worked down until her eyes droop?
The guy’s droning voice gets drowned out
. and she perks up.
Loud music
. for the dancing goths
pantomimed spider webs, floating salt
. imaginary pepper
lots and lots of people, a 100-watt proofreader
. rioting poets.
Even if we’re sweaty, pressed together
. isn’t it still a comfort?
As you revise, think of a pigeon and an owl.
. The one looks dumb but really is smart
the other, not so much
. but still fascinating.
See how the two eyes move independently?
About the writer:
Jeffrey Kingman’s poetry collection Beyond That Hill I Gather was published by Finishing Line Press in June 2021. His chapbook On a Road was published in December of 2019. He is the winner of the 2018 Eyelands Book Award (Greece) for an unpublished poetry book, a finalist in the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk Prize book competition, and a finalist in the 2022 Prime Number Magazine Award for Poetry. He has been published in PANK, Clackamas, Visitant, and many others. Kingman has a Master’s Degree in Music Composition and has played drums in rock bands most of his life.
Image: Sacral Vibration by Marco Mendoza (contemporary). Acrylic on canvas. 36 x 36 inches. (cropped here to minimize glare from photographer’s light source) 2019. By free license.
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