SIX POEMS by BRIAN ALVARADO
plateau tableau
stranger, grain stir
hay, ground, greyhound,
mountain town man
collar locked locker, cocked,
bloody mary, moody blaring
killer liquor
prison sips
admire, mad, ire
plea ride, replied
me? Jail. Gmail.
football, boot fall
keyboard, b chord
golden state, stolen gate
cell phone, fell zone
the arctic, cathartic
ceiling fan- feelings can
weight train, traits wane
petrol tripel
bathroom, wrath, boom
fireballs, buyer falls
eyelashes lie, ashes
norming mournings.
tai chi, chai tea
circus, curses
see right, recite:
‘Couponing for
dead birds:
perched, chirped.
writing’s tiring
notebooks, boat nooks
lieder dealer
Kanye? Yawn. K.
‘Judas?’ do Jazz.
boat shoes, show boots
runway- one ray
lead height headlight
dashboard, bash, door’d
look, Bryn: Brooklyn.
watertower
greedy degree
postgrad ghost pad
pop tarts, top parts
longboard bong lord
first base burst face
beckoned safe second base
dake-brown, breakdown,
tissues, shit stew
quagmires, mag choirs
harmonied, marred honey
moleskines, skoal mins.
bookmarks, mook barks
droll, dumb, doldrums,
plastic slapsticks,
got shunned, shotgunned
sham, rock, ram, shock
palm coast compost
trashbag, bash trag
cupid pew kid 4 foggiest goth gf
mall-punk: Paul, monk
dropout, pop drought,
dine bait, blind date
skillet, licks it
wok clerk, clockwork
chopsticks stop chicks
hardcore card whore,
kanji junkie,
sip, ‘lurve,’ lip served
headbutt, bed hut
redbeard, bed reared
underwears wander ere
round one, ground run
skateboard bait scored
dead hands, head and
toes get ghosted
*bumble bumble*
Vinny, man, minivan
stammer master
toenails, no tails
stubble bustle
beer nigh, nearby
lisping, spilling
princess sin, press
no fees, phonies
teaching cheating
flowers, wow, fleurs
hors d’oeuvres, door herbs
grey France fragrance
daily lady
key spur speaker
encore, con ore
birthmarks, mirth barks
spit-shine shit spine
wrestling, less wring
lucha chula
broke a cobra
tensor center
drainpipe, pained ripe
stern tiles, turnstiles
strongest, gone, stressed
baroque silence license: revoked
winter’s tin whirs
pearl wool, whirlpool
sentences, ten senses
cutting, tucking
thumbs, sing somethings
coleslaw, slow caws
crazed, sacred
birdy derby
ginseng singing
oak trees, trochees
windows, din woes
find bold blindfolds,
minds will windmill
whole mills, molehills,
rotten torrent
locusts coalesce
to sing soothing
lovely volleys,
trilling, littering
chorus ruckus
study, dusty
muddy dummy,
grin and ingrain,
hydrate, dry hates
hand soaps and hope
thrift stores, stiff drawers
waterfall fought a wall,
storage, roar stage
doorsteps store depths,
spirit respite
bye firs, fibers
handbags, banned hags
woe sings sewings
opaques, Poe aches
‘flutter by, butterfly’
lesser sellers
thaw horned Hawthorne
Newtons to none
Brian Alvarado (@wrdsrch) writes and sings. Recent work is featured and/or forthcoming in Thimble, FERAL, Sledgehammer, and Versification, among others. He holds a BA in Creative Writing from Susquehanna University. brianalvarado.com/writing.