Poems by G. E. Schwartz

Will We Remember

…how when seeking some kind of confirmation,
            Annoyances that disrupted the newscycle like gnats
That might’ve have come in with us to escape the
           Coldening October air, whirling like electrons reminded
Us how the universe really started just above the skin
           Of the upholstered armchair, revealing its metaphor
Where the cosmos was a body and x-rays from far
           Quasars showed how continuous we were with
Streaks that scratched the atmosphere as with
           A slough of late-stage insects on Blue PLanet
                     Pronouncing enchilada enchilada to the moon?


Will We Remember

…how often so many things never fit together,
           How they were required to be patched, painted,
How frequently they peeled and the patches often
          Not of the same material, so a screw had to be added
Or perhaps Gorilla Glue, and how nicks were forever
          Unfinished, wood showing, how splinters, how a bed-
Knob was missing, and no one knew where it was,
          And how the side porch settled and the screen doors
Squeaked since who-remembered-when and then
          Never close properly, how bathroom calk, how old
Porcelain, how the pattern once clipped into octagons
          Had gaps, how often we, too, were described that way–
A structure leaning slightly, ever more dependent
                     On loosening parts on a side hill in Henrietta,
                     New York?


Will We Remember

…how at one time or another we had hoped to make
           The cosmos more homey, buckthorn removed like
Planets on their wires, beauty’s lush vocabulary hushed
           By distance’s invisible glove whose finger dragged
The night rivers through Upstate New York in such
           A local universe we hoped the sky might be encouraged
To finally make up its mind to rain or snow or shine and
          Be done with it and the moon might give up its cul de sac
                     Neighborhood and becoming the great lake it so
                                Longed to be?