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MITCHELL WALDMAN - POEMS

1/23/2021

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Mitchell Waldman's fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including  Scarlet Leaf Review, Ariel Chart, Fictive Dream, The Waterhouse Review, Crack the Spine, The Houston Literary Review, The Faircloth Review, Epiphany, Wilderness House Literary Magazine, The Battered Suitcase, and many other magazines and anthologies. He is also the  author of the novel, A Face in the Moon, and the story collection, Petty Offenses and Crimes of the Heart (Wind Publications), and serves as Fiction Editor for Blue Lake Review. His new story collection, Brothers, Fathers, and Other Strangers is due out later in the year from Adelaide Books. (For more info, see his website at http://mitchwaldman.homestead.com). 

​My Brother Left, But He Came Back

​For Christmas
we got machine guns with rocket launchers
and “seven bonus weapon delivery systems!”
we barricaded ourselves behind snow banks
tossed plastic green grenades
made the whistling sounds
and the cartoon KABOOMS! for the landing effects
and our friends did fake shrieks as if hit.
 
We didn’t know this was real
living in the suburbs
with our little patches of manicured lawn
green grass edge trimmed to perfection
against the hard sidewalk surface
even though Vietnam loomed closer
body counts mounting on the TV news everyday
we were just kids
we would live forever
and it was just another show
 
until my brother went
the one I always looked up to
who protected me from the world
the one I asked for advice about everything
what to wear
girls
what to eat
what music to listen to.
 
But the day
he went
I missed him--
there was a hole in my chest--
for eight miserable months
waiting to hear from him
a letter a card.
 
Then one day
a man in a uniform came to the door
my mother told me to leave the room
and when he left
my mother was crying on the couch
a hanky to her face
she looked up at me
through the clouds of tears
that lost look on her face
and didn't say a word
just pulled me to her
held me tight,
so tight that it hurt.
 
My brother did come home
came home in a box
no one left to protect me from the world
as they lowered him into the ground.
 
But who had protected him?
And who will protect them all from the world now?

 

​Eating

​There seems to be no sense to this
dull tedious ritual
spearing fork into meat
bringing it to the mouth
chewing chewing chewing
as your wife is packing her bags up to leave
cutting, spearing, chewing
as your father hangs by a life’s thread on the morphine drip
swallowing, drinking, spearing again
as your brother lies white as a sheet, the heart monitor beeps coming slower and slower
chewing chewing chewing
as they hand you your last check with a “Sorry” and a “Good luck”
cutting chewing swallowing
wiping your mouth
as your life slowly, steadily
 unravels
becomes an empty well
the life you can’t seem to stop.
Putting fork down
all done
done.
 
And what’s for dessert?

 

​A Heart Song for You

​Writing simple as I do
nothing esoteric
profound
nothing from the cosmos
or beyond
just listen:
I feel lost
lost
lost
when you’re not around.
Simple, to the point,
the truth.
Heart feeling heavy
when you’re not there,
at night
reach in the dark
in the silence
just want to wrap my arms
around the place you would be,
where you were,
hear you whisper in my ear,
feel your breath on my cheek,
lay your head on my chest,
stroke your hair,
hold you forever
forever
forever
in my arms
 
the heart of the man knows
what his head doesn’t
you said once
but now it knows
 
want to feel you warm against me
no space between
want to share the air that you breathe
drink in that first kiss
tell you I love you
watch your eyes consume the words
know that it’s true
want to get back to that place
 
feel your heart magnet love
beating against the walls of mine
two hearts echoing as one
feel our tears intermingling
warm
a salty sea of birth,
 
want to get back
back to that place like no other
your small hand in mine
my hand on your hip
your eyes on mine
your lips, tongue, on mine
carry you
hold you
skin to skin
dance with you
at midnight
and say
there has never been a time
a day
a night
there has never been a love
like there is
here
now
today.
 
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