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Larry
Colker |
November 2004 |
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bio
Theo Diamantis
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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
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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