Patrick Moore

Marriage Season

Mae is firmly twisting her knuckles

into the back of my mouth into

audible whispers

planning our days around loved

ones I don’t see enough of

asking if I have ever kissed any of

my friends pre hogtie before they

kept falling

she will just have to watch them spend exuberant

amounts of money to get clapped at while

she guiltily watches from the back tipping

the help as much as she can until

she can’t

Origin

We can watch the superheroes tonight

there is an artisanal chicken in the kitchen

we can be good and drunk if we want to

all through the holiday

we can watch the superheroes on the television

next to the family pictures and the portrait painted by my uncle

he died three years ago because he wasn’t very super

all the punches we watch tonight could break a family

if they were not often caught

we wait with hushed breath

the henchmen close in

it’s only the first act

but these blows could land anywhere

Infinite Knots

You remind me we aren’t

in the business of infinite knots

no clever turn that saves us

no peak or valley standing in

to suck the poison gone

or the cure made clean

you don’t want piety tuned just right

or sense arranged in fortresses

you want something that holds

without ceremony

you want me to pour this sound of longing

out of its performance

out of the rooms where Al Jolson played on

what his hands could still manage

where craft meant staying in it

long after the trick was spent

you want what ruins the knot:

the heat I’ve been hiding under my napkin

that simmers if you let it

and bends down early

to take the heel off the bit

before the engagement photo

before we’re lined up

and told where to stand