Poet's Corner: two poems

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

That’s My Heart Right There by Willie Perdomo

We used to say,
That’s my heart right there.

As if to say,
Don’t mess with her right there.

As if, don’t even play,
That’s a part of me right there.

In other words, okay okay,
That’s the start of me right there.

As if, come that day,
That’s the end of me right there.

As if, push come to shove,
I would fend for her right there.

As if, come what may,
I would lie for her right there.

As if, come love to pay,
I would die for that right there.

--

Poem that Begins w/a Tweet About Gwendolyn Brooks by Mitchell L. H. Douglas

Gwendolyn Brooks was a Jeopardy question no one could answer tonight.
That’s a metaphor too painful to wrap my head around.

& I said, “The poem is about Love
because all poems are about Love,”

& you rolled your eyes so hard
I thought they would snap back to center

w/cherries & diamonds. The flit
of your lashes renders me nameless & I fall

blank for what feels like a block. Falling
is a metaphor for my life: unsettled,

unmoored. I capitalize Love
because it is bigger than what we are

or what we give credit for: oaken,
open. For that, you have no answer,

your breath in kitchenettes:
hal/ved, qu/art/er/ed—cut again.