James Belflower

4 selections

**

from Convictions/Involvement


Brightly and

cool outside
across
yellow grass strip
the man lay
tortillas, pork, milk, donuts
salad a
flaxy bag
his friend yelled away “open
the door, open
open the
door”
We
walk between
them convinced
they were chocolate
iced

**

dusty slope slopes,
“Billy I will take
one
privilege away,” black tiny
galoshes-unbelievable-dirty
black
daschund in the middle side-
walk
turns from Mom to
Billy who
somersaults

**

In a yard


sign of a white dog running
no,

shitting,
exclamatory
point by
its rear calmly

bent

**

Guests
knock

dog barks, pisses
on
the memory is that our carpet is spun
7up bottles

domestic

tangled news-
paper chain
link
fence school yar(n)(d)


shiver-
s

I hate that
embarrasses me

**

return to sawbuck 2.3

**
And Also a Fountain, James Belflower's collaborative chapbook with Anne Heide and J. Michael Martinez, is forthcoming from NeOPepper Press in 2008. His honors include a Pushcart Prize nomination, the 2007 Juked Magazine Poetry Prize, two Jovanovich Awards for his manuscripts, Friend of Mies Van der Rohe and Site, second place in the Banyan Review Poetry Competition, and recognition in the Milton Dorfman National Poetry Contest. His poems, reviews, and essays appear or are forthcoming in: Jacket, Denver Quarterly, Octopus, LIT, First Intensity, New Review of Literature, 580 Split, Cricket Online Review, Alice Blue, Glitter Pony and Subito, among others. He runs PotLatchpoetry.org, a website dedicated to the gifting and exchange of poetry resources.

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