i sent the lesbian
flowers
& the married woman
& the newly unmarried woman
& the dipsomaniac
the nymphomaniac
the apiarist
with eleven toes
& the abacus
with raven blue eyes
& double-d tits
i sent flowers
to the mail carrier with a lisp
& ripped jeans
the beautiful
magazine intern
whose fiancé
was a law student at creighton
the bowling ball
who bought everything on credit
& told me
she liked men with long hair
i sent flowers to the woman
old enough to by my mother
who kept pill bottles
with names like risperidal
trazodone & seroquel
at the foot of her bed
like a moat
i sent another lesbian
flowers
a nascent widow
two more married women
& a hazel-eyed girl
with a kitten jaw
who'd already given her heart
to christ
the more
unavailable they are
the harder
i fall.
_
Justin Hyde is a poet and Literary Editor for The Commonline Journal. He is the former Poetry Editor of Thieves Jargon and the author of the chapbooks Down Where the Hummingbird Goes to Die (2008) and Another Casualty at the 34th St. Bus Stop (2009). His last collection of poems is An Elephant Hole (2014, Interior Noise Press). He lives in Iowa and works with criminals.
Justin Hyde is a poet and Literary Editor for The Commonline Journal. He is the former Poetry Editor of Thieves Jargon and the author of the chapbooks Down Where the Hummingbird Goes to Die (2008) and Another Casualty at the 34th St. Bus Stop (2009). His last collection of poems is An Elephant Hole (2014, Interior Noise Press). He lives in Iowa and works with criminals. 