Matthew Schnirman
Poem [Not one…]
[Not one angel arrives
in fever.]
In a dive
somewhere
around SoMa, looking
like a homo among the drags
of chicken-bears and freaks
and tweekers, Julienlifts
his shirt.
He shows that shingles hurt,
explains how
he’s just broke enough
to paint,
then jokes
that he’s six T-cells away
from a really good day.
As if the body were wilds
that go on forever.
Matthew Schnirman received his MFA from the University of Arizona. His poems have appeared in Phantom Books, CutBank, Whiskey Island Magazine, Poetry Northwest, and other journals. He lives in Seattle where he was a 2015 Jack Straw Writer and a former fellow at the Richard Hugo House.
This poem appeared in the 2015 Jack Straw Writers Anthology.