Two Poems By Noelle Kocot

by Mark Bibbins, Editor

Present

Love swept away the crumbs
And made its exit. Over the
Great fields of Horace, over the
Time-ridden monkey bars of yore,

There is a taking up of things.
The rambunctious night flutters
Like a towel, the past that makes us
Go around and around, it’s how we

Have latched onto things. Beautiful
Stained glass surrounds me now.
I want nothing, and I want to give you
Nothing. This is why I say, hold

Me, as the many limbed hunk of
Earth spins and spins, knocks us around.

Things Are Beautiful

This hand held aggression, this strife
Abhorrent (strike me down), this wet
Kiss on the throat of nowhere: our
Peregrination has succeeded under an

Umbrella of steam shovels. The fiddle-
Faddle of The Great Mind, oh flank steak
Is $4.79 per pound at Shop Rite this week.
Would you believe I see things in sharp

Angles and lines? A naked soul blows
About. It is blotted out by the bridging
Trees. What is this about? Imagine,
The world sunsetting on its very own

Machine, and the weather is fine, full of
Priests and the chuck chuck chuck of the adze.

Noelle Kocot is the author of five books of poetry, most recently, The Bigger World (Wave Books, 2011), and a book of translations from the French of the poet Tristan Corbiere, Poet by Default (Wave, 2011).

I like poems, yes I do. I like poems, how ‘bout you? Oh, good, because we’ve got plenty of them right here in The Poetry Section’s vast archive. Dive in!

You may contact the editor at [email protected].