Benjamin Pryor

Poetry

Fairy on the Stairs

At three o’clock she unlocked the door in ratty boxer shorts and shift,redhead of swirling islands. He’d been gaga over her matchboxes, her beeswax miniatures.

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Poetry

Preservation

My mother lived on Balsam Roadwith four siblings and a moundof paper dolls, safe upon a chessboardof kitchen tiles. The house sat like a sugar

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Poetry

Charactery

After winter’s pill, a flurry of frogs like Roscoe Holcomb from the pond downhill at dusk, a sunset thong bunched on a black branch. All

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Poetry

ABRACADABRA

A baby fox we found sleeping six years ago beneath a shedreappeared for his wake. He squinted beneath the porch when I hopped down to

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Poetry

A Fish out of Water

The subaquatic low and unrelenting moan of whales surprised me Here on the 4th floor of my office building. I turned from my computer to

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Poetry

Mandatory Birthday Hats

I wish wearing birthday hats was mandatory,

Like wearing seat belts when you drive.

I’d like a world where shiny pointy ridiculous cardboard cones

Could be spotted in traffic, at stores, at work . . .

Bringing the person beneath it into focus, letting us share their secret that today, on this very day,

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Poetry

Tactics

He may be asking for money with his hand out or his cardboard sign Or maybe he’s sitting on the curb staring or talking to

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Poetry

Sirens

A siren rings outa few streets awaythen anothersomething is happeningsomething, one suspects, not good Where I standI can hear the siren, I can sense the

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Poetry

the dead

. . . plankton too glimmer in the existential dark
last summer’s daylilies
bloom again while a squirrel
squashed under your rear wheel last fall
sits up bright-eyed chittering in your path
and your favorite mutt

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Poetry

A Night at the Symphony—Music Hall

The establishment
The old crowd
Chatter bounces off the lobby marble
Auditorium seats built for a smaller generation
Hey, they still have the same concertmaster
He always seems humbled by the attention
The orchestra tunes up

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