BIO: Dr. Henry Hughes is the author of MEN HOLDING EGGS (Mommouth Press) which won the 2004 Stafford-Hall Book award. He is currently professor of American Literature, Writing, and Poetry and Western Oregon Unversity.

Poetry by Henry Hughes

Issue 1.3

SKELETON PIRATES OF AMERICA

Oil drunk,

masts gnawed away,

we burn black slicks

for a Chinese cargo of toys.

Never dead enough, juggling

cannonballs and Arabs,

brown galley boys

fry fat

to fill our clothes.

Unpaid women pinch

note-wrapped rates between the planks,

and the sun

burns so hot

even sharks

can’t digest the shimmer curse.

I’m George, says the air-conditioned captain.

See all the blue

for my eyes.

Issue 1.1

BLACK WALNUTS

Little charred brains
on November streets
where folks from Hope House
lurch and bump, rain-suited
down to Rick’s coffee and the market,
over-greeting the kid and idle.
On bad days I just look way. Debt, divorce
pants soaked and shoes spongy – three weeks of rain
and mold is enough to drive anyone
over himself

or a soggy squirrel,
or something the crows
picked apart. They’ll work fresh meat
ten feet before a rushing bumper.
It’s not often you see a crow
glued to the road, though once a whole murder
tarred the lot of my dream.
Rain poured and poured,
gurgling sour husks and smeared nuts
down my iron grated mouth.
As if I had something
very wrong.