Seashells for Ears

I got confused 

when they tested my hearing

by making me stare at uppercase E’s 

projected on the wall

all backwards and forwards 

small talk in bold print hieroglyphs,

I got flustered 

when they checked my eyesight

by making me listen for low tones 

only those in the ocean

could ever possibly hear;

eventually it was discovered 

when at last I took my hands

away from my head

that I’d grown seashells

where my ears were. 

Morning, noon and night

I can live with the waves 

coming in to shore.

Morning, noon and night

I can live with giving the tide 

control for a while.

Rich Boucher resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rich’s poems have appeared in The Nervous Breakdown, Eighteen Seventy, Menacing Hedge, The Rye Whiskey Review and Cultural Weekly, among others, and he has work forthcoming in Pulp Literary Magazine and Eunoia Review. Rich recently served as Associate Editor for the online literary magazine BOMBFIRE. He is the author of All Of This Candy Belongs To Me, a collection of poems published by Jules’ Poetry Playhouse Publications. Peep richboucher.bandcamp.com for more. He loves his life with his love Leann in the perpetually intriguing Southwest.

Love Your Bones

Love your bones, you must love your bones

For without these

How can any living person

work the journey of pavement to front door to commode to bed,

how can any child of the land

outwit the escalator or crosswalk or seesaw?

I heard a man near to me recently

declaim that he hated having bones,

that he wished to be made of flesh and blood rubber instead

and when I laughed there was an uproar 

and I had to explain that I didn’t mean to eavesdrop

but the cafeteria isn’t all that big:

it’s kind of like a small town

with bottomless iced tea 

and olive-green plastic trays for days.

Rich Boucher resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rich’s poems have appeared in The Nervous Breakdown, Eighteen Seventy, Menacing Hedge, The Rye Whiskey Review and Cultural Weekly, among others, and he has work forthcoming in Pulp Literary Magazine and Eunoia Review. Rich recently served as Associate Editor for the online literary magazine BOMBFIRE. He is the author of All Of This Candy Belongs To Me, a collection of poems published by Jules’ Poetry Playhouse Publications. Peep richboucher.bandcamp.com for more. He loves his life with his love Leann in the perpetually intriguing Southwest.

Anna Stesia

Anna Stesia introduce yourself to me,

bring me black cherry relief in a solid gold paper cup,

low-sodium miracle in a single-serve ceramic bowl

festooned with glow-in-the-dark stars and moons,

shock me not with your choice of stocking shade,

speak American remedies culled from permanent wheat

along the riverbanks of Nebraskan beginnings,

if I am frightened by x-rays and procedures

tell me about the wild hare campgrounds again,

sing, sing what you whispered to me yesterday

about the tests coming back enthusiastic,

in the name of heavenly Gabriel’s elliptical routine,

in whose translucent hours you’ll return,

if I am troubled by clouds let me have a ceiling again,

I can be brave again if you tell me how now,

tell me anyhow, tell me somehow with

a box of crayons and cleanliness and galaxy soup

until the milliliters have come and gone

and I can head home, myself and me no longer alone,

thank you again, Anna Stesia,

for locating first my will and second my strength to dance

a gamma watusi and a caduceus tarantella

in the place I’d forgot I left them

there behind dusk’s copper opera mask,

thank you, Anna Stesia, promising cell Countess

in my mist, in my thistle-wistful midst

when with the doctor’s blessings I can leave here,

I will not worry, I know you have my things

all there for safe keeping underneath your lips

Anna Stesia, my electroencephalograph dream

I thank you, truly I do.

Rich Boucher resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rich’s poems have appeared in The Nervous Breakdown, Eighteen Seventy, Menacing Hedge, The Rye Whiskey Review and Cultural Weekly, among others, and he has work forthcoming in Pulp Literary Magazine and Eunoia Review. Rich recently served as Associate Editor for the online literary magazine BOMBFIRE. He is the author of All Of This Candy Belongs To Me, a collection of poems published by Jules’ Poetry Playhouse Publications. Peep richboucher.bandcamp.com for more. He loves his life with his love Leann in the perpetually intriguing Southwest.