Conveyance
Bas-relief your hand on a lamp pole in rain mine
tracing the bus schedule shelter awning
hemorrhaging water sunshine finished now
crashing down on the river southwest hills
filling with fog
I’m going to shrink away
in this afterthought of light faint glare
through the pane shards of your voice
perfuming the sewers neglect of shit
routed beneath these stuck-together streets
Somewhere in my head
I’m heaven-ward out on a boat in the
embrace of the Mediterranean I’m dipping my oars
deep into the rush people admire my technique
& you’re not so pretty but pulling up in front of us
is this release fulfilled figuration of my body
losing yours distrust smashed up against the last
and next occasion of the sun showing me its face
dragging up & levelling a gaudy glass-eyed gaze
to drain the paste of this
city I am leaving
Michael Brokos
Michael Brokos lives in Baltimore, where he teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University and is an assistant poetry editor for the Baltimore Review. He is the recipient of a Bread Loaf Camargo Fellowship in Cassis, France, and a work-study scholarship to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont. His poems have appeared in Cimarron Review, Poet Lore, Bodega magazine, Hobart, and elsewhere.