Ryan Murphy is the author of Down with the Ship from Otis Books / Seismicity Editions, as well as a number of chapbooks including Poems for the American Revolution (The Dutchess County Department of Occupational Training). He has received awards from Chelsea Magazine and The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art as well as a grant from The Fund for Poetry. He lives in New York.
Batting Cleanup for the Los Angeles Dodgers
That same old feeling,
a pop song.
Sky choral.
it is. I grind
my teeth in my sleep.
It is wrong
to want to punt
the child that wails
in the night. I remind
myself, it is wrong
to want
We are out of doors
goes the sales pitch
for spring
like the Home Depot.
Soft blue trees stain
the edges of the afternoon.
Flowers in December
Steam from the laundry room at street level
fills the air with spring, and a shadow—
Empty park on Thursday afternoon
in December.
Sports radio.
Indeed, strangers are frightening.
Billeted as such.
A shadow of warmth
I am listening to a recording
of Mazzy Star singing "Flowers in December".
Dizzy in the mix
from cold to sleet to snow to rain
Jet Blue, I'll be the one
to undress you.