Very well it’s the last time on
the bad tooth kiss her look
death in the eye the driver
he says that’s enough folks
our coach is late for departure
*
His people were fallers they say
their skin was amber their voices
were sap find him with his fists
full of evergreen needles chanting
Tristia pray for my bones to lie soft
©
's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Tin House, Boston Review, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Kenyon Review, Drunken Boat, La Petite Zine, Handsome, Publishers Weekly, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. He was born in the Catskills.
Allyson Paty is the author of The Further Away. Her poems have appeared or will appear in publications including Tin House, DIAGRAM, Harpur Palate, Juked, and Boxcar Poetry Review. She is from New York.
Previous Torch Songs have appeared in Gulf Coast, Colorado Review, The Awl, HTMLGiant, Bridge, and Underwater New York.
Schoonebeek’s poem “Torch Song: Filch” also appears in this issue.
