MrsBrown
Here's the drill sweetthang
Call me on my
or the princesa’s
cell
when you've collected your
equipaje (that's Spanish for
excess already lugged)
We'll be hovering
in the can’t loiter
During said exchange
you'll let us know from
which vestibule
(that's bureaucratic formal for
simultaneous in & out) you'll be emerging
We'll meet you
in the far bolgia (that's
Dante for where they gather to smoke
now)
We'll be driving a black CR-V
You'll be wearing a coreopsis
pinned to your chignon
and half-waving Donn'll be
jiggy in sweet relief
Fly friendly
LoveFromCan'tWait
for you too long
The cops are a bitch
Easily Withheld
Do not question the mother
who tires early
of nursing the wind
and ushers her offspring
into the lee of a vacant lot
Do not
question the mother
who sates herself
encouraging no compromise
the mother whose accommodations
are thin milk
and semen from any quarter
dark allotments in dank retreats
who cannot dote on consolation
whose bewilderment lasts
ever and ever
occupying both margin
and text
In addition to That hum to go by (Mammoth books), Jeff Schiff is the author of Mixed Diction, Burro Heart, The Rats of Patzcuaro, The Homily of Infinitude, and Anywhere in this Country. His work has appeared in more than a hundred publications worldwide, including The Alembic, The Cincinnati Review, Grand Street, The Ohio Review, Poet & Critic, Tulane Review, Tampa Review, The Louisville Review, Tendril, Pembroke Magazine, Carolina Review, Chicago Review, Hawaii Review, Southern Humanities Review, River City (The Pinch), Indiana Review, Willow Springs, and The Southwest Review. He is currently serving as the interim dean of the school of graduate studies at Columbia College Chicago, where he has been on faculty since 1987.