This was supposed to be poems for keeps, but I just keep writing new poems here. I guess they are all for keeps at this point.
Poem for My Brother
I was telling you about the guy in Golden
the shop teacher who shot himself
in the basement and left his kids behind.
Your daughter knows his I said.
Don't tell your daughter.
Bad role modeling, you replied.
You quickly changed the subject.
"Have you tried Ghost?
The energy drink?
I think I'm addicted to Ghost."
I remembered a dream
from when we were little.
You poked at a shark
in a coffin and it jumped up
and bit your ear off.
An earless portrait of you
painted by Van Gogh
hung on the wall in memorium.
I've been worried about you ever since.
Now you are learning to be a poker dealer.
Your marriage is on the rocks.
Your children half hate you.
God. But I still love you.
I'm ready to put my body
in front of that coffin
to keep your beautiful ear
from being shark food.
You've read every Balzac novel
Proust, Dostoevsky, Mann
and the list goes on and on for days.
You are the best read man I know.
That all lives in you now, like Ishmael
coming home from the mad hunt
still in one piece to tell about it.
Or the Ancient Mariner.
Give up the Ghost.
Put the poker away.
Live to see another day.
