J. BRADLEY

WHEN A POET WRITES YOU A LOVE POEM

He is a felon beneath

the windowsill of your smile,

brandishing romance

like a scraped crowbar.

The case is ready; which

species will you be today

for her to guide thumbtack

into corkboard?

There is an apology buried,

your eyes a dull shovel.

THE PHARMACOLOGY OF NAMCO

You navigated her through neon mazes,

using a pint of La Fin du Monde as a torch.

She swallowed enough to reach

the first act: boy meets girl

while fleeing from ghosts.

We are armchair athletes.

Our sheets are only for sleeping.

We take each other never as directed.

BIO

J. BRADLEY is the author of the forthcoming graphic poetry collection The Bones of Us (YesYes Books, 2014). He lives at iheartfailure.net