Tag: Kenneth Pobo

STOPPING BY by Kenneth Pobo

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STOPPING BY

My mother said
butterflies visited her
in dreams. Outside
my bedroom window,
a yellow butterfly.

That’s her, stopping by,
then off she goes.

*

Kenneth Pobo (he/him) 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 Lilac And Sawdust (Meadowlark Press) and Gold Bracelet in a Cave: Aunt Stokesia (Ethel Press). His work has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Asheville Literary Review, Nimrod, Mudfish, Hawaii Review, and elsewhere.

Bad Boy by Kenneth Pobo

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BAD BOY

Mom said “Only the neat survive,”
her Bible on the coffee table
open to John 3:16, a verse
to guide anyone who entered.
I disappointed her
as I was sloppy, my room messy,
and worse, I left glasses all over.
She yelled and yelled. I thought
she was dramatic, never helped
with the dishes. She said that was
her job. Part of her job was
religious training, our church
four blocks away. If God so loved
the world, why did he insist I go
to church? School was bad enough.
I couldn’t close the top
of my overstuffed desk. So far

I have survived, still messy,
still missing her.

*

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), Lilac And Sawdust (Meadowlark Press), and Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose (BrickHouse Books). Opening is forthcoming from Rectos Y Versos Editions.

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.

*

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.