TWO POEMS

GABRIEL FRIED

Schoolyard Evangel They say I have been sent. Who says?Not my parents if that’s what you’re thinking.Not my parents and not my pastorneither. And not God. God’s busy. The other boys play contest games.Some run like hares. Others huddlelike fat old toads. Both kinds please me,how full they are of keeping score. Sometimes one asks me what I’m doingup here on top of the mountainof old truck tires. I say I’m waiting.For what? he asks. I tell him I don’t know but that when I do, I’ll tellhim so. The teachers must relyon me the way they watch me watching.Sometimes they stand in groups and look my way together like a congregationlooks beneath the pulpit, or siblingson their backs guessing atcloud shapes before a storm. Schoolyard Blessing Remember that the asphalt bring you joyand asks for little:just…

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The American Poetry Review (Digital) - 1 Issue, May/June 2022

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