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Robert Pesich and Michael J. Vaughn



Break


I'm a night person, playing eight-ball
racking up light in a wooden triangle
my only sin the scratch off the emerald corner
a cloud of smoke, thick as corduroy

In a game of blind draw, everyone has a number
stripe or solid, win or lose
the crack of a kiss echoing in the heart's pocket

But grant me your red-shock hair, your smiling agenda
break my body
bring me crying to the jukebox windows

I watch as you square your white shoulders and strike
the knowledge of the world reflected in your fingernails.




©2003 by Robert Pesich and Michael J. Vaughn


Michael J. Vaughn is the author of The Legendary Barons, a softball novel from Dead End Street LLC (deadendstreet.com), and fiction editor for The Montserrat Review. His poetry has appeared in more than 40 journals. He lives in San Jose, California.

Robert Pesich's recent work has appeared in The Montserrat Review, ALBATROSS, and The Bitter Oleander. His book, Burned Kilim was published by Dragonfly Press in 2001. He is the secretary for Poetry Center San Jose. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"Break" was initially composed during a game of pool in a bowling alley bar. Messrs. Pesich and Vaughn took turns adding lines to the poem while the other player shot. Due to numerous edits and much beer, neither poet recalls which lines are his, or who won the game.


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