Exquisite Ghost of the Dream
It won’t be easy abandoning the broken-down car along the side of the road. But do it anyway. Hurl the keys into the dry corn. Keep walking. Winnow away like the passing trucks. Cross a mountain should one approach you. Slip off your shoes and carry them along the shore like the broken promises they are. High-five the stop signs until you get there. Write love letters home to your bed. You can cool your palm against any sad iceberg and get low and make your face fall into the last rivulet in your way. Then stand on your feet. You’re back where it all began. The car gone without a trace. The corn higher than your head.
Michael Martin is a poet, editor and filmmaker living in North Carolina. In 2020 he was a finalist for Poetry International’s Cavafy Poetry Prize. His first collection of poetry, Extended Remark was published by Portals Press in 2015. Poems from his new poetry manuscript appear in journals such as EPOCH, American Journal of Poetry, Poetry Ireland, RHINO, & the Moth, among many others. For a decade Martin lived in Amsterdam where he was a feature writer and editor with Amsterdam Weekly; in 2010 he edited the Harper’s anthology Rules of the Game: The Best Sports Writing from Harper’s Magazine.
