Adam Engel: two poems

WATER 19

focus on sound, not fury, sound
we don't want apples, give us pie
the forecast: doom
believes there's more to life than "just all this"
accepts his own death and the world's
cosmic moment, buoyed by canned laughter
audience goes out to drink
divided
each to his preferred establishment
make merry

WATER 25

just a girl's room
scent, dolls, sock-puppets
mirrors, clothes, telephone
magazines
and all that pink

. . . stereo . . . sixteen . . . spring . . . when in the course of human
events remembered . . . when in the course of
human events when we were young . . .

now: the haunting
word phantoms
synaesthetic spooks of what was said and died
approach in color

Adam Engel's most recent book of poetry is Oil and Water (Maximum Capacity Press, 2001). His poetry and fiction has appeared in such magazines and periodicals as The Concord Journal, The Middlesex News, Accent, The Littleton Review, Ark, Smart Shoes, The Beacon, Literal Latte, Artemis, The Lummox Review, The Half Moon Review, Art:Mag, Fearless, Chronogram and others. He was a featured reader at the Woodstock Poetry Festival in August 2001.