person Chris Shorne, two poems

Chris Shorne holds an MFA from Antioch University, Los Angeles and has
published with Utne Reader (online), Portland Review, The Manifest
Station, and Sinister Wisdom.

~*~

Consultation for Umbilical Hernia Surgery

The doctor tells me there was nothing I could have done
to prevent it. Nothing
that I can do on my own—
not exercise or diet or changing my environment—
would redo it.

It’s common
as mud: We are weak
and wear thin
in places
we’ve been cut
from one another.

~*~

Northwest Slumber

I

A chest of stars,
drifts me to sleep
earth flesh bends round
gray Fir, needle down:
Rain.

II

Puget Sound rushed
to the shore
of the forest

still searches, eyes closed.

III

Sleep:
a canopy of invisible trees.

~*~