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January 28, 2015 Poetry

3 Love Poems

J. Bradley

3 Love Poems photo

A Love Poem As Directed By John Woo

Ask her to aim her index fingers.
at you. Aim yours.

Ask other couples to aim
their index fingers at each other,

hold still. Ask a dove
what everyone spells.

 

A Love Poem As Directed By Nicholas Winding Refn

Choose your words, as if what you say
is a lock pick, a shotgun cooling on
a motel windowsill.

Consider the order of things,
what color to bathe the room with,
which song introduces you.

Remind yourself you are not
a bullet to swallow.

 

A Love Poem As Directed By Louis C.K.

Your arms shiver with shame
when you think of her. Your stomach,
a swollen plastic grocery bag
with HAVE A NICE DAY spread across
the cellophane in chiding red letters.

Every ledge places bets on which sidewalk
will wear you the best.

Every sidewalk asks for a vaccination
to ward off your blood.

You are held together by a swarm of loneliness.
Do not allow yourself to cough. Avoid needles.
 

J. Bradley's is a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominated writer whose work has appeared in numerous literary journals including decomP and Prairie Schooner. He was the Interviews Editor of PANK, the Flash Fiction Editor of NAP, and the Web Editor of Monkeybicycle. He is the author of the poetry collection Dodging Traffic (Ampersand Books, 2009), the novella Bodies Made of Smoke (HOUSEFIRE, 2012), and the graphic poetry collection The Bones of Us (YesYes Books, 2014), illustrated by Adam Scott Mazer. He is the curator of the Central Florida reading series There Will Be Words and lives at iheartfailure.net.

 

image: Tara Wray


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