April 28: Connor Everywhere But

[Martha]

Connor Everywhere But
Adam Falkner

after Jericho Brown

Connor on the four train, sports page rolled
          into a drumstick.  Connor stretched out
shirtless on the front lawn, a football propped
          behind his head.  Connor laughing against
the red brick of a café, head thrown to the sky
          like a sail snapped by the song of a quick
wind.  Connor in The Daily News: a balcony
          mishap, twenty-four flights, faulty railing.

Connor through the bottom of a pint glass.
          Connor through the crowd at West Fourth,
a fistful of fence in each hand.  Connor through
          the bottom of a whiskey glass.  Connor
hobbling on a kickstand crutch, swinging
          at stray frisbees, tree trunks.  Connor
on Channel 7: a good-hearted young man, filled
          with hope, always whistling. Connor
drunk-leaning toward a woman at the bar, whispering
          a smile of green lights across her face.
Connor in black and white, frozen on a bookshelf.
          Connor in the tire-gravel high note of a blues
ballad, the scratch of careless stubble on another man’s
          neck.  Connor collected cleanly into a shoebox.

Connor in the search bar.  Connor on G-Chat:
          Invisible.  Connor floating in the corner
of a cooler, tucked behind the last Newcastle.
          Connor circling in a breeze above the Neversink,
curling around the Hemlocks like smoke
          in a dead room.  Connor in a porcelain vase
on a mantle.  Connor in poems that have nothing
          to do with Connor.  Connor sitting shotgun
in the silent 4Runner on the way to his own funeral,
          bare feet propped on the dash.
Connor between eye-rubs on the couch before dawn,
          flashing in and out like an old time movie,
shower water running in the next room.

--

Also by Adam Falkner: Origin Story, 1993

Today in: 

2024: The Mother’s Loathing of Balloons, A.E. Stallings
2023: To Be Alive, Gregory Orr
2022: A Metaphor, J. Estanislao Lopez
2021: Ode to the Unbroken World, Which Is Coming, Thomas Lux
2020: What Kind of Times Are These, Adrienne Rich
2019: Conversation with Phillis Wheatley #2, Tiana Clark
2018: Love Poem, Denise Levertov
2017: Young Wife’s Lament, Brigit Pegeen Kelly
2016: For the Confederate Dead, Kevin Young
2015: Awaking in New York, Maya Angelou
2014: when you have forgotten Sunday: the love story, Gwendolyn Brooks
2013: Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey, Hayden Carruth
2012: My Place, Franz Wright
2011: from The Wild Geese, Wendell Berry
2010: Love After Love, Derek Walcott
2009: To This May, W.S. Merwin
2008: Father, Ted Kooser
2007: from Little Sleep’s-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight, Galway Kinnell
2006: Crusoe in England, Elizabeth Bishop
2005: Dream Song 1, John Berryman

+ Today's poem: Connor Everywhere But, Adam Falkner