Diagram E
John Schertzer

Pay attention: this here: dirt on a page: dirt under nails: nails maybe words: page of lines: page of holes: along the edge: lines and holes going out: a search for intent.

​It wants to impress you: it wants to press even on itself: what starts: whatever the excitement: outward from life: that is thought: that is not: and where these knives cross.

A kiss through a pane of glass: a kiss on a mirror: mirror by eyes extended: as a way to imagine: waiting by the telephone: and who is it not but the what of your voice: by the extensions: our living through: each word armed or fingered: reaching for you through the book: the blue monitor: sound of helicopters brushing a window: you in earnest: you are right here: and the other you we still look for: somehow enacted by: the unreal incomplete somewhat: impetus of the actual.

Untitled, by Tameca L Coleman, digital photograph, 2018

About the Author

John Schertzer has had the good fortune of having his poetry appear in The Germ, American Letters & Commentary, La Petite Zine, Pavement Saw, The Cortland Review, Diagram, 1913 Journal, Shampoo Poetry, Danse Macabre, 6,500, and other publications. He taught for a spell at The New School in New York and edited the criticism section of LIT. He lives in Brooklyn NY, with his wife and fellow poet, Kathleen e Krause, and their two evil genius sons, Liam and Declan.