'MASQUERADE' & 'CRAWL' by Joseph Riippi

Masquerade

Outside it is raining
and no one carries
an umbrella, so that
everyone is
getting wetter and wetter,
and everyone
looks like everyone else.


Crawl (for Connelly)

4 pitchers of Guinness
and he said, "I need
to expunge some liquid."
He left to pee.
I, sitting alone now,
Took out my notepad,
And wrote it down.

--------

Joseph Riippi is a recent Pacific Northwest defector. He was born andraised in Seattle but currently lives at 91st and 2nd in Manhattan. Heis a staff writer at several magazines and newspapers, and the Arts &Opinions Editor at Beyond Race Magazine in New York. In 2007, he wonthe 2nd Annual Farmhouse Magazine Prize in Fiction.