Three Men

(oil on canvas)


In the first man, your gaze can go on
though he is still there,
his face a grid-like exactness,
white tidy tie.

In the second and third, your gaze can go on.
In the far right corner,
filled with
how clothes billow—

This is the feeling of a time:
so smooth it could spill,
ambulance lights flashing
by the side of the road.

In the three men
are ends of aisles in grocery stores
and how I miss everyone
being more or less alive.

In the three men
is a back porch,
the eaves dripping, rain here and there
patting the tree leaves.

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Kate Northrop's recent collections are Homewrecker (New Letters, Vol 88, 2022) and cuntstruck (C & R Press, 2017). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, AGNI, American Poetry Review, Blackbird, Plume, Sugar Poetry Review, Terrain.org, and Virginia Quarterly Review. She is a recipient of a NY Times Book Review Editor's Choice, the Paumanok Award, Wick Poetry Award, Jeanette Haien Ballard award and fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell and Jentel.