Tag: Ken Pobo

HALF A CENTURY AGO by Kenneth Pobo

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HALF A CENTURY AGO

Tom bullied me. Has he
forgotten the cruelty?
Graduation was an eraser.
Maybe he plays with his grandkids,
tells them stories of his childhood.
When he gave his friends
candy cigarettes and licorice whips.

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Kenneth Pobo is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections. Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), and Uneven Steven (Assure Press). Opening is forthcoming from Rectos Y Versos Editions. Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose is forthcoming from Brick/House Books.

Two Poems by Kenneth Pobo

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NOISE

has nowhere to go
but inside us.
Like a bad cough,
we can’t shake it.

We look for peace,
a crimson and yellow
daylily, each blossom
lasting less
than a day.

When we find one,
the noise fades,
briefly–
color fills us.

 

LODGER

Greed shows up with a suitcase
and says “I won’t be any bother.
I can sleep anywhere.”

Such a quiet man, at first
I barely realize he’s in
my own house.  A week,
a month, two months,
his steps grow louder.
He gets on my nerves—
yet I don’t ask him to leave.
He knows I won’t.

I fix him good dinners,
take orders,
don’t ask questions.

 

Kenneth Pobo has a new book forthcoming from Assure Press called Uneven Steven.  His chapbook, Your Place Or Mine, was published in June 2020 by the State Poetry Society of Alabama.  His work has appeared in: Hawaii Review, Atlanta Review, Nimrod, Mudfish, Philadelphia Stories, and elsewhere.