Poetry
This is Thin Air Online’s Archive of pieces that are classified as poetry, both long form and short.
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The ghost that lives on 28th street by Katie Himes
I thought I saw the ghost that lives on 28th street yesterday. The white curtains shuddered in the front window of the house whose only friend is the pink tricycle that sits near the fence that used to be blue. There might have been a shadow that waved hello as I passed and I might…
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Three Poems by Jaqueline Newlove
Old Shoulders Once lying in bed beside a lover, I wished for removable arms, so I could press myself against him and give those overworked oar locks a rest. The next day, I’d slip them back in place to row us down the river into town, past cliffs and overhanging willows. Now my shoulders ache…
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Two Poems by Sarah Valeika
Marriage I may not have loved you, but I set your shoes out at your place on the mat every day before you hopped the train. Sat them by the door, far enough so the cross-breeze from under wouldn’t chill the toes and I untied the laces, left them limply at the sides. Though I…
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Love Or Something Like It by Carolyn Adams
She envied the pink plastic furnishings of other girls. Hers were makeshift, cast-off cardboard from the kitchen, the laundry room. Hairstyle experiments matted her cottony hair, and there was a pinhole in her forehead from a brief curiosity concerning acupuncture. Aware of the benzene in her DNA, she still managed a shy smile. A gleam…
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Grandma Told Me by Tom Garback
Fires start in rainstorms, grandma told me once. Behold this tangle of thorns. The rose garden blooms by blood in the snow. Daffodils, the willing weeds. Roots on the waterworn cliffs, platonic pornography. I scoop mouthfuls of her words and fondly break into wilder sprints to boys my age with eager ears, embittered tongues, halos…
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Three Poems by Jade Riordan
Cat’s Delight If the moon was spun of yarn and the stars were strands of thread lying between awake and asleep I would tie them to my bed Bubblegum Breath Each bubblegum bubble I blew gained a core floated off the Earth and became a planet once more Ribbons You tied ribbons around…
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Two Poems by Dani Putney
OCD You’ll break the lamp on your desk, use the shards to stab your cubicle mate. Please, they beg, stop. So you move the lamp to the corner of your desk. A colleague will pass, you’ll slam their face into the lamp, glass on purple lips, what a mess. So you bury the lamp under…
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At the National Portrait Gallery I Make Impossible Requests by Leah Dawson
O Eleanor Your buck tooth smile Thin lips pressed against a pink track of gums Who could have known Your first name was Anna O Eleanor On the way to Babylon a coyote shot between its amber-yellow eyes. How were you…
