four o’clock coffee:
first baking from the Sellwood Safeway
risen early with no real purpose,
no plane to catch, a habit shaped
equally of anxiety and autonomy
enter gull:
flare to pavement, pas de chat, perfunctory poop
behind the wheel of his pickup,
the most personal private space
on the face of the rearview world
stare-down:
beggar bird has the upper hand, and knows it
self-made man, by himself,
parked, under the parking lot lights
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 18, Issue 2.
A carpenter, Ted Jean writes, paints, plays tennis with lovely Lai Mei. Nominated twice for Best of the Net, and twice for a Pushcart Prize, his work appears in Beloit Poetry Journal, [PANK], DIAGRAM, Juked, and dozens of other publications.
See all items about Ted Jean