circumsized heart, by Herman Shorts | poems, essays, and short stories in Poeticous

Herman Shorts

Herman Shorts

circumsized heart

of the things

that make me

become better

only music is

unlike surgery

enough to be

useful. quite

too bruised by

all your self–

improvement

ordeals. stop

cutting me. i

was perfect

before you

insisted on

unnecessary

repairs. so

sing, or hum

or maybe just

shut the fuck

up, please. i

would like to

love women,

again. be one

very much

less awfully

so certain i

have need of

your knife

skills, please.

2016

Other works by Herman Shorts...

third circle (completion)

first fruits hardly a handful, the garden

something you need makes you its bitch, yes even as it isn’t coming, no when love stands you up & all the more sweet

if ever someone is

if ever someone is my dearest ear who hears my truth as theirs

here in the middle of the bottom of the lie how obvious

1

sometimes a hawk

of course it is not about you. you have to know this, like baby birds know worms come with mother’s return,

trying too hard

was all stupid. you weren’t that entertaining. i find it all only sad now, that

does a king come ready– made, or doesn’t he emerge from a prince once a frog, and aren’t you

people, mostly all

people, mostly all barely beyond apes, cannot be trusted. they are incapable of caring

1

1

america thinks i'm dead

like bell bottoms or disco but we need it to think i’m dead

simply knowing you’re in a maze doesn’t get you out, but the fact is the foundation

yes, i'm saying

yes, i’m saying sunshine & rainbows will flow from your heart & other lovely places like living liquid

1

1

is there, then, a vortex?

shall we turn down the covers, crawl inside? find there a place that’s been waiting for us, a vortex of sorts

1

adventures in multidimensional identity politics

nobody goes mad on purpose, also never is it not shared,

1

Fieldwizards and firetops. Wobblybirds on snowflowers. Chilled milk and chowder for the little prince. Mothercake for mumbled thanks.

things to avoid

dopplergangers in case you both explode, who knows it could happen, true love too qui… like a limerick, obvious stupid si… like things aren’t. also, angular

1