Mark DeCarteret

just far enough into the forestthe sound of this nuthatch clean as laughing gasactivated with fall’s light I will try channeling laterwhen I take chalk to slate as if it foretells of a letting-upof all the snow we have seen to and now relive a hundred foldwith the favor of a candle lightning the sky would listmy mistakesin this styleI’d thought longdiscontinued--mostly these ego-strokes & lungesshort on consonants & then I’d countoff the secondsbetween when I’d check one off& when I’d make outthe gods’ moansas they took forevereasing off of me Mark DeCarteret has had some lit-luck as of late at Berkeley Poetry Review, BlazeVOX, coconut, Confrontation, Ghost Town, Hunger Mountain, Spillway, St. Petersburg Review and Toad Suck Review. From 2009-2011 he was Poet Laureate of Portsmouth and last year was short-listed for New Hampshire’s.