Poetry
130 Pages
ISBN: 0-910055-75-0
Paper: $13.95

In this stunning second collection of poetry Jerry McGuire mixes sinuous movement with hardened and sharp-edged language. The result is poetry that is fresh, wry, crudire, often funny, and deeply moving. The extraordinary directness of the poems and their persistent questioning might lead some to think of this work as "Post-Modern," but this is not poetry about; it is a poetry which demonstrates perception, not only of the objective world but of the poet's inner life, regardless of how dark, wacky, or sublime, and regardless of the consequences.

Urban Fauna #1

In cities there are dinosaurs, the only ghosts,
with lungs as long as taxicabs, with hearts
slow, melodious, and lost. There is a low
humming you can hear when the subways have shut down
and the drinkers, whores, and sellers of low things
are the only ones you meet. You'll see their eyes
roll inward at the sound, they've heard the call before,
it is a grieving and a curse and a promise
all in one: the whore knows. And that one there,
with one blue eye and vomit down one leg,
he's ridden them through the tunnels, put his cheek
against the cool green skin of their long necks
as they moved, moaning, their heavy legs
the daintiest thing around, he's known this odd
longing to give in, go down with them to where
they shelter in the dark, sober, forever listening.