Poetry
Old Sailor’s Home
Mark J. Mitchell
issue three
Your locks are missing doors. Oversized rings
of keys litter tabletops like lost teeth.
You’re afraid to walk outdoors and to blink
in sunlight, feel locked out. You once kept neat
files, logs. Elegant hand on lined sheafs
of college-ruled paper, written in codes
you lost. The kettle whistles like a ghost
of music. Open a drawer. Hide the keys.
Pray for lost locks to return, to sail home
to doors, still open to songs of the sea.
About the Author
Mark J. Mitchell has worked in hospital kitchens, fast food, retail wine and spirits, conventions, tourism, and warehouses. He has also been a working poet for almost 50 years. His latest novel, A Book of Lost Songs, was just published by Histria Books. An award-winning poet, he’s the author of five full-length poetry collections, and six chapbooks. His latest collection is Something To Be from Pski’s Porch Publishing. He is fond of baseball, Louis Aragon, Miles Davis, Kafka, Dante, and his wife, activist Joan Juster. He lives in San Francisco, where he makes his marginal living pointing out pretty things.
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