Wiley Birkhofer

Progression

I feel so good
I feel so nothing
Listening to the wind with its whole body

The sound of him dragging a soiled napkin to his lair
So many smiles of these days
Grinding themselves down to tight little stumps

The compulsion to pull your pants over your shoulders
And walk around like a spider with two legs and no arms

[Dear Mom if that is your real name…]

Dear Mom if that is your real name
My skin is falling off and there are too many crows here
I scraped my back on the dirty coral and now I’m dead

Everyone else in the room is doing it wrong
Everyone else is happier

Black silk robe
Gardening her heart

WILEY BIRKHOFER (1987-2014) was a poet, musician, and artist from Menlo Park, CA. He studied English at Stanford and poetry at the graduate writing program at NYU, where he earned his MFA in 2014. Other poems can be found in Split Infinitive; Word Riot; Punchnel’s; The Rain, Party, & Disaster Society; and at wileybirkhofer.com.