Submissions by Bumstead

my poetry has failed me        
its insufficient      
arrangements of alphabet              
stumble over their own serifs              
lisping s’s and stuttering l’s            
o that every star were a letter            
with which to write              
the constellations in my heart              
and  words were weightless            
feathered  things            
unfettered by the gravity          
of innuendo          
the incapacities of misjudgment              
I would sing for you            
in...

tucked away under the sink  
behind the drano        
and spare sponges      
further still you quiver      
as my steps approach      
your errant bottle of proof      
sensitive as the flesh      
on my abdomen      
unconcerned as my      
toughened heel      
you know I’ll reach      
and feel        
for you when I’m weak      
and you’ll have a      
night in my mouth      
through the teeth      
and emptied      
find your own voice      
in my warm throat      
while I...

An acrobat you are to me
or something rare unearthed
Caruso’s ship out on the sea
a Dodo bird from Perth
a third leg on a mannequin
a third eye in the mirror
a Loar or Gibson mandolin
Han’s wookie’s moan- a deer
the kink in Song of Solomon
young Merlin and King Arthur
the met in metropolitan
a finger in my garter
graffiti and the MOMA’s art
a blue tailed skink a duck
the brightest bulb the sweetest tart
a nun who likes to fuck
a mistspeled word a happenstance
the mystery in miss
the just plain weird in...