Poems - Tichy and Szymaszek

Nui Sam

On the steps of the pagoda
A man was begging

A man with no eyes was begging
On the steps of the pagoda

It might be fire it looks like that
It might be Willy Peter

A smooth tight kind of burning
To the bone it might be that

Someone had drawn red circles
Maybe he had drawn them

Someone had drawn red circles
Where his eyes would be

It might be lipstick it looks like that
It might be red lipstick

They make a place to look
When you are looking

A place to put your eyes
It might be that

- Susan Tichy


from Hart Island

Island of one

million unvisited

policy named for

its organ shape defunct

missile silo lunatic

shoe compost TB

limb box Academy

Award winner un-

identified East Village

apartment dividend

soft body area

by 25 years

- Stacy Szymaszek