Poems
by
M.J.
Rychlewski

 


I met Mike when we were undergrads at UIC in the late sixties, and I've always counted on him for his good judgment and his love of the world, beauty, and poetry. And you'll see what I mean when you read these two poems I've included here from his first book, Night Driving (Wine Press, 1984). Some of his other poems have appeared in places like American Pen, Private Arts, Conversation, and most recently at www.thescreamonline.com; and one of his theater pieces, My Atget, was performed at the VIA festival in Paris in 1994. Mike teaches in Chicago, and I envy his students—John Guzlowski.

 

NIGHT DRIVING

Motels, restaurants, funeral homes
trickle into the sticks. The dark
intervals lengthen.
                                 Out
in the night
in the beauty of going nowhere
practicing the face of the lover returned
so the dream can begin correctly.
         Below the stars
                         dark fields slide away.
The first small town is taken in a single breath.

Years pass.
Faces in photographs
submerged in shadow
                   smudged with light.
establish a first
                final distance.

The chest constricts past small town squares.
Cool dark fields give no air.
On some nights fear
so strong it seems like
death.
          Movement
                           becomes essential
as breath.

Is it possible now to stop
and change anything moving in this
future of next moments?
At dawn from shadows
statues of black
angus press
destination like a hand falling
asleep on a chest
weighs into waking.

The lover never returns.
The dream never starts into sleep.

Bodies of small animals.

Insurance signs left on all night.


***

OUR FRIENDS IN ASIA

Walter Ball & Patrick Talty
the class clowns of 4th grade.
Their names went together like
Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy.

Photographs of women with baskets on their heads.
Paragraphs on the Mystical Body Of Christ.
Produce maps with bars of iron and grains of rice.

An ancient folly says
the world is really inside out

and beyond the stars at night
lies Asia.

They both died years ago
Patrick Talty & Walter Ball
whose names went together like
Oliver Hardy & Stan Laurel.

At night when the stars are bright
bars of iron
                        grains of rice
                                                over Asia
our friends.

***

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