Todd Shalom
2 Poems
O Sister We’re Not Suburban

I changed the name of that street
and black-clothed the lights at the intersection

You
must peer through open pockets and
nudge and
nudge the family
(we’re all guilty culture gleaners)
How hard is it to get to the other side?

This gauntlet is a wormbath for
the bored and incessant

I know there’s
a spare
flashlight in the garage

But where is Nusrat or the holy
swell?



Quick Slip of Candor

it might have been stockdust or
the drory embel danger

it was a satin coathanger
in cottonball burnish

it wasn’t a waste of time—
your soft face smiles

we render the ammunition ranch feather
glossy summer syrup

return to SHAMPOO 19