Dave Read


Poem with a Line from William Blake

“You never know what is enough
unless you know what is more than enough,”

my teenage son claims while stuffing
an eighth piece of pizza into his mouth.

With a mix of awe and disgust,
I watch him and wonder if he will eat

until he pukes and, if so,
how we will know

whether it was the third, fourth, fifth or sixth slice
that would have proven to be

the enough at which he
should’ve stopped.



Snake Eyes

Rather than remaining
in Las Vegas
with its easy access
to sin
and bottled water,
we drove into
the desert today.
There were few
signs of life: scattered
weeds that had
yet to tumble.
My youngest claimed
he heard a rattler
but we are certain
if was only
a hiss of wind
and the sound
of dice rolling
snake eyes
in the distance.



Retained

There are as many
billboards for lawyers
as shows.
Advertised
as a city of sin,
good representation
is integral
to the Las Vegas
experience.
Even so, it is
disappointing to learn
that what happens
in Vegas
stays
in Vegas
except for
your criminal record.



Fathom

I don’t understand
the depths of it:

the word,
or the ocean.




Dave Read is a Canadian poet living in Calgary. He was a recipient of the 2016 Touchstone Individual Poem Award for haiku, as granted by The Haiku Foundation. His work has been published in many journals (including otata, Presence, Modern Haiku and Haiku Canada Review), and anthologies (including New Resonance 11). You can find his work at davereadpoetry.blogspot.ca.
 
 
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