Drew, Lawrence Bridges. First published in Tatterhood.
coke zero and poetry
Terry Jude Miller
everything belongs to one thing
1.25 liters of coke zero next
to the keyboard takes on the warmth of air
nothing ever grows cold—heat moves
I learned in thermodynamics from an Indian engineer
crack a walnut in a backyard full of crows
see their attention zero in on what’s exposed
we all attend to our hungers—each seeks
to satiate what the belly calls nirvana
I’d ask Mrs. Brooks about this—but she’s
long gone—so perhaps I’ll ask Yusef
he won’t reply to my emails—something
in their silence and their poetry tells me
to search on alone
this morning the tongue of flowers
laps up last night’s dew—the yellow rose
is dying—there’s a part of everything
in its passing
if you’ve moved from room to room
and think you are in a different house
each time you cross a threshold
you understand—you are part of it too
Terry Jude Miller is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet from Houston. He received the 2018 Catherine Case Lubbe Manuscript Prize for his book, The Drawn Cat's Dream. His work has been published in the Southern Poetry Anthology, The Lily Poetry Review, The Comstock Review, and The Oakland Review, and in scores of other publications. He serves as 1st Vice Chancellor for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies.