The Gorko Gazette

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5.19.2026 6:45 AM

Ipswich to Pride’s Crossing and 2 more by Michael Igoe

Ipswich to Pride’s Crossing

It will take a lot more than you think,
if you’re planning on a crash landing.
If you smoke menthol cigarettes
I”ll get them in New Hampshire.
It was no more than a month ago
the Lily Jean sank with all hands.
From the outlying burn patches
to the narrow arm of the ocean.
I stay in bed all morning,
with the cat on high alert.
For birdsound in the beech tree
the wind chimes strung behind.
I feel tension building before release
on the margin between frozen lawns.
I felt the tension building before release
on the boundary between frozen lawns.

Impairment

This conversation will be recorded
to document your revenge motives
that might seem like minor details.
Originally,on the avenues,
the gas lamps ran parallel
to the cascading fountains.
Merchant princes engaged in trade
pooling resources with reluctance
dividing the loot in equal measure.
I received a clean bill of health,
it was posted on a nearby kiosk.
As long as the muscles in my legs hold out
there’s the possibility of going the distance.

Table Grace

Immediately before his passing
my grandfather said table grace
to expel both Deus and Demon.
His lips turned to a cold blue
like the motifs in magazines
you’ve once leafed through.
There was a chill in the air,
congealed in the fast traffic.
Out the woebegone windows
a dark parade of funeral cars,
and on the pavement squares,
old men pointed out the stars.
They aren’t made from buckshot
they’ve agreed to a fragile truce,
until the world comes to an end.
I didn’t think things ever changed,
I was getting ready to leave town.
But wait, there’s your old friend!
I can’t believe how we changed!
Yes, we all have really changed;
no longer righteous descendants
from two different family trees!

About the artist

Michael Igoe, city boy, Chicago now Boston. Works appear in journals and anthologies at amazon.com, lulu.com, barnesandnoble.com. National Library of Poetry (Owing Mills MD) Editor’s Choice For 1997. Best of the Net Nomination 2023.
Instagram:: igoe590
Twitter(X):: MichaelIgoe5
poetry-in-motion.org