Three poems by Mark J. Mitchell

            DIALOGUE

            —There is something you’ve forgotten, my friend.
            —I know. There was a book.
                                                               —Yes. Small. Gold-bound.
            —That’s the one. My father’s first, one he found
            on some shelf in a sad ruined house. Then
            he left it to me. Odd story, the end
            came on every page and each word’s sound
            weighed more than meaning. It dropped on soft ground
            and sank. I dug. I searched. Now I pretend

            I forgot its language. To admit
            I’ve misplaced that book-

                                                               —Yes, I understand,
            it would be like playing dice on a grave
            or cards in church. Not the book itself, it’s
            the mistake. You don’t fear your father’s hand,
            it’s a talisman-
                                           —Yes, I should have saved.

​



           CAPITALISM


            Come close.
            I will sell you

            silence

            in small
            doses

            so you won’t
            get scared

            blank—almost
            white

            you will
            enjoy it and

            it only costs

            one breath.

​




​                FORMS

                Variations on an old line

                
                The shape
               Of a surprised mouth
               After the kiss
               Before the wound.

                The surprise
                of a kiss before
                the mouth shaped
                words to wound.

                Before a wound
                can surprise your mouth
                into a new shape,
                a soft kiss misses.

                Shaped to wound
                a surprised mouth,
                you wait for a kiss
                before and after.

​

Bio: Mark J. Mitchell studied writing at UC Santa Cruz under Raymond Carver, George Hitchcock and Barbara Hull. His work has appeared in various periodicals over the last thirty five years, as well as the anthologies Good Poems, American Places, Hunger Enough, Retail Woes and Line Drives. It has also been nominated for both Pushcart Prizes and The Best of the Net. He is the author of two full-length collections, Lent 1999 (Leaf Garden Press) and Soren Kierkegaard Witnesses an Execution (Local Gems) as well as two chapbooks, Three Visitors (Negative Capability Press) and Artifacts and Relics, (Folded Word). His novel, Knight Prisoner, is available from Vagabondage Press and a new novel is forthcoming: The Magic War (Loose Leaves Publishing). He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the documentarian and filmmaker Joan Juster where he makes a living showing people pretty things in his city.

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