POETRY
Harsh angles
“Harsh Angles” read by Patrick T. Reardon.
Chill valley. Hallelujah waters.
Hear nobody. Hear nobody.
Outshout the light of God.
Outrun the word.
Outdistance.
Jordan troubles. Burden dreams.
Cross the kingdom into the Canaanite land.
Take by force.
Hear the unsaid.
Honor and humble. Steady the sun.
Glory the run. Son the light.
Soul the fire.
Light the line through.
Light the fall of fire.
Humble and honor, judge.
Jagged tribulations, hard times.
In the ground, the fox hides.
In the tree branch nest, the bird.
Go here. Go there.
This door and that.
Falling, failing, fading, rise no more.
The long little finger of the selfish.
The broken knuckle.
Babylon falling.
You’d better. You’d better.
Refuge the city. City the run.
Run. Run. Run.
Jonah the whale.
Isaiah the preachment.
Elijah the chariot across the hunted skies.
Shoulder bone, Samson,
the blindness.
You’d better.
One-Cent is awake in the gray-black:
his thoughts at harsh angles,
black-ember butterflies rising from flames.
He looks in the rock for the fissure of entrance.
Behold, the alley scripture.
Patrick T. Reardon, a Chicago Tribune reporter from 1976 to 2009, is the author of seven poetry collections. His latest is Every Marred Thing: A Time in America, the winner of the 2024 Faulkner-Wisdom Prize from the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society of New Orleans (Lavender Ink). He is a five-time nominee in poetry for a Pushcart Prize. His poetry has appeared in Blue Unicorn, America, RHINO, Commonweal, After Hours, Autumn Sky, Burningword Literary Journal and other journals. He is also the author of the history The Loop: The “L” Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago.
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