These three poems by Matt Dennison capture and reveal the larger truths within the seemingly simple through the act of intimate observation…
by: Matt Dennison
Life
so much of life
is so much
folding of
clothes
try to do it
on a Sunday
afternoon
sitting
on the
bed
watching a surprisingly
good movie
on tv
as the
ceiling fan
ticks
and the cat
lingers by
the door
Pool Hall
Raising my eyes
from pool-cue vee
of arched-back hand
and fingertip bridge,
I watch the old man through
the neon-lit widow remove
the cheap cigar from his
deep coat pocket,
slide off the wrapper,
consider, then light,
puffing deeply,
grey hat square
across eyes as,
hands returned,
folded in deep
pockets of peace,
he stares through
the window,
the beautiful stench
of his proud private
failure billowing up
between us.
The Immediacy
There is no point
in my wandering—
walking supposedly
home at night alone,
rain splashing strange
triangular flat
no-word scenes
at my feet,
the man across
the street saying
“It exists!
It actually exists!”
in hushed curious
exultant revelations
later to know that
it does not matter
in the least and I
am speaking of
human hearts.
Matt Dennison finished his undergraduate degree at Mississippi State University where he won the National Sigma Tau Delta essay competition (as judged by X.J. Kennedy). He is the author of Kind Surgery, from Urtica Press (Fr.) and Waiting for Better, from Main Street Rag Press. His work has appeared in Verse Daily, Rattle, Bayou Magazine, Redivider, Natural Bridge, The Spoon River Poetry Review and Cider Press Review, among others. He has also made short films with Michael Dickes, Swoon, Marie Craven and Jutta Pryor.
