Quinn Franzen
—
At the Corner of St Pauls and St Pauls
The trash magician ties a bag,
whips a fresh one from the roll.
His wrist thrashes it
into a single clear thought.
I want a clarity that kills.
I want to be split by breath.
I want to be pancaked by God.
As a boy I leaned
from a boat my father steered
to watch blank brains of coral
pass in the jelly black water.
I couldn’t blink
as they shivered up,
as they barely cleared
the keel’s slick blade and sunk
Quinn is an O'ahu-raised, Brooklyn-based actor, poet, and tutor. His poems are published or forthcoming in Poetry Magazine, Pleiades, Fugue, The Journal, Barrelhouse, and elsewhere. He was a Galway Kinnell Scholar at Community of Writers and received his MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. His acting work can be seen on TV, on- and off-Broadway, and in regional theaters across the country.
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