As Mister Rogers Prays to His AquariumAs the kingdom we imagine has a train, and the train has a station in our house. As the glass spun gold with you who swim your lives together, as the gold of our life to come. As every new flake draws another mouth to the surface of the water. As each ripple is not sound, but hunger. As the difference between silence and the word after. As these are our words: circle, stillness. Spiral, pause. Every new day is a machine of transformation, even the newness of the dead, as though the water held us moving by the wire of. As one drawn to another by the wire of. Another whorl in the spiral. Another arm. A new line drawn in the palm. |
Ryan Patrick Smith's poems appear or are forthcoming in the Kenyon Review, Boston Review, Salt Hill, DIALOGIST, and elsewhere. A native of Kentucky, he holds a BA in English from Transylvania University and MFA in poetry from the University of Missouri - St. Louis. His poetry was runner-up in the 2015 Boston Review Poetry Contest and semi-finalist in the 2015 "Discovery" Poetry Contest. He currently works for the writing center of St. Louis University. |