[Realpoetik] NOAH FALCK

[RealPoetik Magazine]

HOMAGE TO STEVE WHALEN

Officer Whalen was shot and killed while attempting to stop a vehicle

wanted in connection with a shooting at a local hotel. – March 22, 1991

A neon sign burned against the city. Then silence
and witnesses at the ice machine.  I noticed
vanity plates from Michigan and the moon
after the blinds were drawn.  There were seat
belt violators everywhere, people surfing channels,
a stubborn breeze lounging in the parking lot.
There were soda machines.  Mountain Dew cans
squashed like hit-n-run victims and the moon
now dipping in the swimming pool. Death was
waiting, never where I wanted it to be.
Coffee on the tongue reminded me of morning, the light in my wife’s eyes
catching the sun
through the kitchen window.  And now my
own eyes blinking through their twenty-
second hour.  Outside the darkness was quiet
as it branched out and marked everything in sight.
I was the adjusted speed limit, the song of colors blurring into traffic and
then the shaky
words assembled before the last breath.


To view a poemfilm of this piece, please visit the
RealPoetik<http://realpoetik.org/>
 website.


Noah Falck is the author of three chapbook collections, most recently Life
As A Crossword Puzzle <http://www.openthread.org/publications.html>, which
won the 2009 Open Thread Chapbook Award.  His recent work has appeared or
will appear in Forklift Ohio, Greensboro Review, New York Quarterly, and The
Equalizer. Visit him at noahfalck.or <http://noahfalck.org/>g.


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RealPoetik
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