Poetry: Edward Smallfield

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autumn in New York

                              A blur
                           at this tempo
                              a memo
 often mingled                ignores
    with pain                the store-
      fronts     lit with     & rowing
  against the river           the going
    & coming                  a blur:
                               finger-
    prints                   on the keys
                             on the knees
   of the city               a lingering
                            I want to live
    it                         a sieve

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after Niedecker 4


                                pillow
    slip                        so white
it hurts             the eyes.
              Nightgown                    blow
thru my bare                       snow
                -blanket                    I
    freight                            the night
                      —the marrow
              of           the hummer
            (hotly)               cared
 for                no objects here
water                           , summer
          (the hot)                 shore
Good-bye       to lilacs        by the door

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Edward Smallfield is the author of The Pleasures of C and the coauthor of One Hundred Famous View of Edo, a book-length collaboration with Doug MacPherson. His poems have appeared in alice blue, Five Fingers Review, New American Writing, Parthenon West Review, 26, and a number of other magazines. He lives in Barcelona with his wife, the poet Valerie Coulton.

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