TWO POEMS by STEVE ORTH
French Art Film from France
a dream I once dreamed
about the dread inside me
garlic on my breath
lips around a nipple
shining like a penny with a sack at my feet
the cold air caresses my back
announcements over the intercom
spiders crawling carefully.
Can we please paint the sky with obsessive time?
Get Bob Costas to call the wind?
All I want is to be needed
with no water in my sneakers
watching the new moon sway
high as a moth.
Today Was A Doozey
Today was a doozey
dropped a pecan pie and later
popped my cherry on
the branch of an evergreen.
“rookie mistake,” mother said.
A tale as old as time:
milk hill, dump truck
thumped out in a lawn chair
winded from the discourse when
I was searching for softness.
I don’t know about you,
but I see snakes everywhere
hanging from the clothesline
slithering by my feet.
It’s a bit much
to deal with
on my first day at Safeway.
Steve Orth is the author of Lust For Life, A Perfect Day For Scottie Pippen, and Inflatable Ball. He co-curates the Unnamed Tamarack Reading Series in Oakland, CA. His next book Angel Island and Other Poems will be released in 2026. A year that will also see the reissue of his full-length collection of poems and prose, The Life & Times of Steve Orth.