Somehow

GREGORY LIFFICK

Somehow Poems
©MMXVII Gregory Liffick
All Rights Reserved
Published by Fowlpox Press
Layout: Paris Pâté
ISBN: 978-1-927593-61-5

Table of Contents

Park Safety
Nile Lulu Dog
Fixer Bath
Couple Sight
Modern Tail
Plastic Front
Meow Look
Routine Hot
Wonder Back
After Green
Potion Bar

Conflict

PARK

The blue
color of
her
eyes
was
a pond
you had to
stop and
look at.
Her cheek
bones
were high
enough to
be
benches to
sit on
and enjoy
the view.

SAFETY

He wrote
to keep
his
thoughts in
a box.
Not hiding
so much
from a
dark side
as from a
part
of him
that
wanted to
be in
another
life.

NILE

The icons
on his
screen
were not
unlike the
ancient
symbols of
Egypt. He
was a
scribe of
the phone
as priests
once
were on
the walls
of their
temples.

LULU
Drove
him
to drink in
a used
car.
Under the
influence of
her around
the block
charm.
Sober,
the wheels of
her love
ran him
over and
left
hangover
skid marks.

`

DOG

When his
belly was
rubbed it
only put
him on
guard. He
did not
roll over
and
accept
the well
meant
touch. He
wanted to
bite.

FIXER

The
gray in
the
strands
of his
hair had
begun to
paint him
with age.
A
coat
of
wrinkles on
his skin
would
complete
the look of
an
old
house
for his
soul.

BATH

Poems
poured
from him
and filled
his
notebook
like a tub.
Readers
would step
in and
soak in
the
verse if
he got
the
temperature of
the words
just
right.

COUPLE

Wed
for many
years
to the
literary
love
of his youth.
Had fights
that led to
long
silences.
Make up
sex
with a pen
between the
sheets of
paper.
Couldn’t live
without
each other.

SIGHT

A thousand
of his
words were
worth more
than a
picture. The
things
in him
were
better
said than
shown.
His verse
let others
draw
what they
liked
within the
lines.

MODERN

Traffic
was the
music of
the
avenue,
the
pavement
played by
finger-like
tires
of the
passing
cars.
The Main
Street
noises made
a harsh,
twelve-tone
harmony.

TAIL

His past
drug
behind him
in the dirt.
Drawing a
line back to
time
he had
lost
in the
wild of
his youth.
Now it
wagged
the old
hound
who’d
grown
tame over
the years.

PLASTIC

The
hospital
gave him
a new
nose to
fill the
hole
cancer
left
in his face.
When he
grew a
moustache
and
wore his
glasses,
he looked
like a
party
mask.

FRONT

Her eyes
couldn’t
forgive him.
Dark pools
in them
were
deep
with
anger.
Her
smile
was
shallow,
not far
below the
surface.
And her
bared
teeth still
seemed
like a wall
to keep
him out.

MEOW

If she
had
a tail
like a
house
cat
it would
give
away
her
feelings.
She was
good
at hiding
them as
a person.
But pets
don’t
have
filters.

LOOK

He put a
hand over
the crack
in the
mirror.
The
wound in
the glass
seemed
too much a
reflection of
his thoughts.
Covering his
eyes would
take away
the rest
of the
spotty
picture.

ROUTINE

Things
had gone
still since
the death
of her
husband.
She went
to dance
class
hoping
her legs
at least
would
move. If
one part
of her
was in
motion
the rest
might
follow.

HOT

Their
bed
was a
stove
top and
making
love was
bringing
them
on it
to a
boil.
Passion
doesn’t
want to
simmer. It
wants to
cook on a
high heat.

WONDER

Took
drugs to
go
through
the
looking
glass.
Not with his
forehead,
but with his
mind.
Tried to
forge
a prescription
for what sent
Alice on
her
fabled
trips.

BACK

His lies
held
hands
across a
lot
of years.
A clear
look
at him
would
have
to break
through
them
or go
between
their arms
or legs.
Maybe she
could get
to the last
untruth
at the end of
the line
and go
behind to
his other
side.

AFTER

She
thought
she could
be herself
in the
next life.
A bottle
of pills
might be
the way
out of
her
skin and
bones. As a
ghost she
would do
what she
chose and
still
maybe
stay in
the same
home.

GREEN

She didn’t
want to
stand out.
But love
took
drawing
attention.
Wishing for
the seed
of
another
wallflower to
somehow take
root next
to her.
But the
corner of
the room
lacked
warm
light.

POTION

A bowl of
chicken
soup
wouldn’t
cure
him of HIV.
He didn’t
believe in
a heaven,
so it
wasn’t
even good
for his
soul.
Maybe the
miracle
was in the
crackers.

BAR

The way his
eyebrows
joined drew
a line
between
thought
and voice.
A
Great
Wall of
hair
keeping
Mongols of
the
forehead
from the
gates
of the
mouth.

CONFLICT

She
had
to trace
her steps
as if
in a
mine
field.
The
office
was a
war.
The
snack
shop in
the
lobby
was the
only
friendly
zone. Even
in that
public
space
there
were
spies.

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