‘Blooper’s Yard’ by Tony Shore, 2007 Winner of the Sondheim Prize
The Marriage of Birthdays
Your midnight suspect in
front of the sun more sun
than Pessoa lathered down,
I hold things like pennies
in yellow bags of sky,
carry bundles in overcoat
and scarf; a ray of candlelight
catches through the son
of a violin, who pauses for
light’s first song. He plays
oceanside his thinner minutes,
a gremlin erosion of world
becoming background jets,
a scientific copulation in
religious veils. These girls
have nowhere to go with
broken mouths casting out
the aging toothless sky –
hear great straings of cake
bitten through with icing
as candles answer to wind.
Amy King is a poet based in Brooklyn and Baltimore.
Her newest book is titled ‘I’m the Man Who Loves You’ published by BlazeVOX Books, 2007.
