Thomas Fink

 
KINDLY REFRAIN


                                   Contemplative 
                                             fornication.
                                                 Transcending 
                                                          osteoporosis, 
                            graves into                            groves.
                                     We go through               a whole 
                                                        quart on        Mondays.
                                                                 Why         do they
                                                                 think           they 
                                                            should          widen   
                                                  the hole?           Or can?                   
                                 Flanked by half             a dozen                 
                 charge cards, I’m                 passing on 
                                                     one  welt
                                         aunschauung      
                                tonight for
                    a go at any 
       smorgasbord                                                                                                    
 at large. 






MATERNITY LEAVE


Persistent avowal of 
disgruntlement.    Keeps
 intimates                   on the
  ropes.                            Yet under  
        cuts the                              immune
            fort.                                      Were 
               self-                                       starter 
           visionaries                                      ever a protected class?
             She bore                                                           me. Grew
             bored.                                                               Of me. 
         We'd                                                              better
      oil an                                                          inner 
  machine                                             that greets
     calumny                              by churning 
             it into                         vapor. Or 
                  trot out emergency cake.



EMOTIONAL FORM


     The cruel                                                               may gleam.
 
     Don’t trend          into an exceptionally         pious sociopath.
 
     She can’t translate guitar riffs        into an emotional formula.
 
     Credit for                                                             ineffability?    
 
Insufficient as your               average           Congressional “hearing.”
 
Scorched                                                                                capital?
 
Walls don’t                                                             build themselves.
 
Find your temper, please,          &            break with empty sedition.
 
Glass at                                                                             table edge.

Thomas Fink has published 11 books of poetry—most recently A Pageant for Every Addiction (Marsh Hawk P, 2020), written collaboratively with Maya D. Mason, Hedge Fund Certainty (Meritage P and i.e. P, 2019) and Selected Poems & Poetic Series (Marsh Hawk P, 2016)—as well as two books of criticism, and three edited anthologies. His work appeared in Best American Poetry 2007. His paintings hang in various collections. Fink is Professor of English at CUNY-LaGuardia.
 
 
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