Design
While creeping toward year’s shortest day, we pause
to view this coffee stain whose Mickey Mouse
ears, clearly violating trademark laws,
corrupt the countertop and shame the house.
These Pollock drips might have suggested saint
or president, a charging buffalo
or snowy owl, but no. Their free falls paint
a nuisance-prone small amateur gone pro.
But were their falls free? Draft, humidity,
the angle of the cup, the curve of lip,
a subtle wrist, the brew’s viscosity—
How can we claim I didn’t let them slip?
I watched the Mouseketeers, I wore their hat.
Dear, how can we deny I planned that splat?
The Problem Solvers
Their faith in “problem solving” strong,
They banish old confusions,
Installing new ones just as wrong.
Now, who’ll solve their solutions?
Dan Campion has contributed to Light since its first issue and has recent work in After Hours, Blue Unicorn, Ekphrasis, Measure, The Midwest Quarterly, and the anthology Amethyst and Agate: Poems of Lake Superior, out this summer from Holy Cow! Press.