bio

Theo Diamantis

    Larry Colker hails from West Virginia and currently resides in San Pedro. He co-hosts the weekly Redondo Poets reading at the Coffee Cartel in Redondo Beach, CA. He taught at USC before switching to technical writing for the software industry.
His first collection of poetry was What the Lizard Knows: New and Selected Poems, and he and Danielle Grilli recently issued a joint chapbook titled Hunger Crossing.
www.redondopoets.com

What the Lizard Knows

My cat catches mice and lizards

in the brush behind my house.

She carries them in her mouth

across the patio, to the back door,

then lies beside them

looking the other way.

A mouse will hunker motionless

for some instinctive interval,

then try to dart away.

I doubt any have survived.



Lizards are different.

One lizard the cat brought home,

one that was now tailless,

turned and faced my cat--

less than a foot away

and a hundred times its size--

and spread its jaws wide open

in what must be a fearsome display

to ladybugs and gnats.

A lizard must know

that the part of it that’s easiest

for others to grab onto, to break off,

is the easiest part to let go of,

and, in time, renew.



When I cower before things half my size--

cold words,

broken promises,

treacherous smiles--

It is because I have forgotten

what even the lizard knows.



(Previously published in RATTLE 1995)

copyright 1995 Larry Colker

Newtonianism for Ladies

If you pursue him, he will flee.

If you flee, he will follow.

If you achieve the correct distance, he is yours.



If you make him your Sun, he will attract other bodies.

If you change his inertia, your paths will diverge.

If you remove heat, the system falls apart.

copyright 2004 Larry Colker

In Such a World

They say the universe

is an unbroken wholeness,

that there are, in fact, no parts,

that there is, in fact, no path

from A to B.



They say it’s either/or,

that you do or you do not,

that you have or have not done

whatever it is one does.



They say your life adds up to a story,

that at the end the message is revealed,

though in the middle

the plot can seem unraveled.



In such a world

there can be no separation,

no indecision,

no missing pieces,



no looking ahead

to see if she comes back

in a later chapter.



(Previously published in Interbang 1998)

copyright 1998 Larry Colker