2 poems

by R Hamilton

draw

When your betraying back seizes up again,

your soft lead pencil falls to the floor

and the hard Future steps, embarrassed,

quickly outside for a smoke

to let you navigate the pain in private

until you can regain the pencil

and your art resumes —

its point whole,

its line flowing,

its poetry unbroken —

at least for a while, until it cannot;

at least for a while, until the baths

no longer keep the Berliner kalt at bay.

flat-wound vs round-wound

The shadows have grown

long enough to reach

around your waist, pull

you closer, kiss you softly;

yet still the guitar

is too cold to play

without any strings snapping

to lash like unexpected goodbyes.

R Hamilton’s poetry first appeared in their 1970 high school literary magazine, followed by a fifty-year backstage career in performing arts ending with retirement and the pandemic. Their next “published” piece was included in City Lights Theater’s 2020 Halloween podcast, an unintentionally round number of years and/or decades. Since then, Hamilton’s work has been included in collections by Caesura, Oprelle Press, and Boats Against the Current.