Storage Space: A Collection of Contemporary Verse by Darren A. Stein - HTML preview

CONTENTS

Storage Space .......................................................................................................... 9
Watching Old Men Playing Tennis ....................................................................... 10
The Consistency of Baby Poo ................................................................................ 11
Toy Cars and Immortality .....................................................................................12
Odds and Evens .......................................................................................................13
The Curse of the Ordinary .....................................................................................14
No-daddy-else ..........................................................................................................15
Exercising Patience ................................................................................................. 16
I Think I May Be Dying ............................................................................................. 17
Bird Watching at the Western Wall ................................................................... 18
The Holy City .............................................................................................................19
They ..............................................................................................................................21
The Golf Mad ............................................................................................................22
Among the Eucalyptus .........................................................................................23
In Passing, I Said to Rikki ......................................................................................24
Picture Window ........................................................................................................25
Bahama Sunset in Soweto (1994) ................................................................... 26
Stars ..........................................................................................................................27
South Africa ........................................................................................................... 28
Letter to Karen (March 22, 1995) ................................................................... 29
A Dog Called Spot ...................................................................................................31
File 13 ..........................................................................................................................32
Howard Davis .......................................................................................................... 34
Concrete Worlds ..................................................................................................... 35
Ode to Writer’s Block ............................................................................................ 36
Two Feet .....................................................................................................................37
Mr. and Mrs. Nostradamus ................................................................................ 38
Lost ............................................................................................................................ 39
Tin Cup-Tin Heart ................................................................................................... 40
Mists ...........................................................................................................................41
A Fear of Ghosts and Distance .........................................................................42
Ode to the Solutions of a Math Problem at
Two o’clock in the Morning ........................................................................... 43 I Wonder .....................................................................................................................44 Caged ......................................................................................................................... 45 Red Dust .................................................................................................................. 46 On Asking for Directions ......................................................................................47 Frayed Nerves ......................................................................................................... 48 The Thought of Her ................................................................................................ 49 Here and Now-Now and Then .............................................................................. 50 An African Picture Postcard ................................................................................51 In Their Eyes .............................................................................................................52 Love and Space ...................................................................................................... 53 The Fishermen’s Sacrifice .................................................................................... 54 Last Words for a Blind Duckling ........................................................................ 55 Love in Pretty Packages ....................................................................................... 56 A Message from the Damned .............................................................................57 On Missing the Dead ............................................................................................ 58 When All Was Done ................................................................................................ 59 So Tired ..................................................................................................................... 59 To Be or Not to Be? .............................................................................................. 59 I Felt the Days ........................................................................................................60 When I Least Expect It .......................................................................................... 61

For my best friend, Ryan Schroeder, whose memory is always with me, and for Grandpa Ted and Grandpa Pete to whom I promised I would one day dedicate this book.