Antigonish by Hughes Mearns

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away...

When I came home last night at three,
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall,
I couldn't see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door...

Last night I saw upon the stair,
A little man who wasn't there,
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away...

(written 1899)

stuck with your gold(en)

it's a slow perish, the wait you thrust
and I have still the box
an empty receptacle for the silver absence
despite being stuck with your gold(en).

Definitely by MARY JO BANG

What is desire 

But the hardwire argument given 

To the mind's unstoppable mouth. 

Inside the braincase, it's I 

Want that fills every blank. And then the hand 

Reaches for the pleasure 

The plastic snake offers. Someone says, Yes, 

It will all be fine in some future soon. 

Definitely. I've conjured a body 

In the chair before me. Be yourself, I tell it. 

Here memory makes you 

Unchangeable: that shirt, those summer pants. 

That beautiful face. 

That tragic beautiful mind. 

That mind's ravenous mouth 

That told you, This isn't poison 

At all but just what the machine needs. And then, 

The mouth closes on its hunger. 

The heart stops.

gone..

..just like that.