BRIAN BARTLETT AT THE POETRY PARTY

Brian Bartlett

From Safety Last

 (inspired by the silent-screen films of Harold Lloyd)

  Two men fight

on a heap of rope until,

   tangled, they fight the rope

                 He keeps all he has

            from their one meeting—

                her dog’s biscuit-box

   From sleeping-car curtains

horrors of the dark—

  strangers’ jutting white feet 

              After the mouse-trap

            bites his searching fingers,

              he eats the cheese

   Silent movie—

the shy stutterer

   is spared sound 

                After she’s named

            the stranger Trouble, she says,

              “Trouble, don’t change”

Brian was going to read from his new Gaspereau Press chapbook at The Words & Music Show: It Will Be Summer in Montreal Sunday, March 22.

Copies of Safety Last can be ordered here