Dean Faulwell

3 poems

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The Distance Between Here and Now


With her into a silence that only night can explain.
The silence of the telephone and its story,
the one that leaves the art part out of Oslo.
Often I would see you walking there
and wonder about it. Other times
the moon would seem to slip
between the trees. Or I would imagine
myself interrupting you as you were about
to say something. I never know what.
I always assume more than can happen
and end up having to forgive myself again.
Even so, you open your mouth
and words fly out
like formations of migrating geese.
Then I close my eyes and pretend
it has to be Tuesday. As if that
could be the answer to a prayer.

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All the Time


I'm where I am
when I'm with you.
You are always
mine for nothing,
even in the morning.
Whenever I almost eat you,
I catch myself
with hands I keep
for catching.
I feel lucky
to be so glad
about everything
all the time.

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Twilight

More than anything else
life seems to be
a way of gradually forgetting
what the question was,
then sitting down
at the table
to eat what's left of dinner.

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return to sawbuck 4.2

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Dean Faulwell has appeared in previous issues of Sawbuck.

Dean Faulwell

3 poems

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Water Follows Me Everywhere


The mirrored desert may
hold the answer, albeit
the wrong one, the one
that's a word to the wise,
but not the secret key to why
we dwell. Shadows
drift past me on their way
to an impression I have
of someone waiting behind
a door that, if opened,
will reveal the end of me.

**

Television


No sense knowing
what doesn't exist
except for the
pure hell of it.
Embrace what's gone
before it gets here
as if it were air
on its way to wind.
Move into a house
that will never be built
and fall asleep
watching television.

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A Truth


Desire's sharp edge
turns holy in the distance.
That's what early is
by dreaming,
old words
rehearsing the logic
senility takes refuge in.
The skin of a verb
may slip out of time
to polish the noun
it dreams of.
If you hear it,
you will hear it from me.
It's the only
word in my mouth.

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return to sawbuck 2.3

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Dean Faulwell's poems have appeared in dozens of publications over the years, with recent appearances in Sawbuck, Midway Journal and The Alembic. A book of poems, Water Follows Me Everywhere, is looking for a publisher.