Justin Vicari
Green Bouquets
At night I listened to the roaches
scuffling the wall. Better
be fast. I imitated
their furtive grabs at light,
raiding the donations jar
at a school fundraiser.
For all the things I needed,
a miracle of clammy sweat.
I lived for each score,
each stolen wad shining down on me.
Last call: I scoped the bar.
Frat boys tottered in their shoes, half-blind
with lusts that even liquor could not name.
When they huddled I
swept down the counter, crushing
twisted edges in my pockets.
At home I spread out
those ugly wildflower bouquets,
fanning off the beer reek.
The limp bills
tore themselves to pieces in my hands.
The crisp ones sliced my fingertips,
attack dogs failing to scent
their masters’ smell.
Page(s) 128
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The