George Bishop
George Bishop was raised on the Jersey Shore until relocating to the central Florida area in 1989. Recent work has appeared in Freshwater, The Meadow, Barnstorm and is forthcoming in The Griffin and Third Wednesday. His chapbook Love Scenes will be released by Finishing Line Press in the Fall 2009. He is also currently a poetry reviewer for the publication Sotto Voce.
Afternoons
(approaching sixty)
They come with a nap attached
now. A condition. They begin
by passing on lunch and agree
with nothing. They survive best
between promises.
The low ceiling of the bedroom
is made of old flooring. They pace
the worn wood, pause at a cigarette burn—
then sit in a corner where the finish
remains glossy. I imagine a grandfather
clock there, my image deep in the grain.
First Published in Innisfree Poetry Journal (March 2008)
Initials
I don’t see them much anymore.
Maybe there aren’t enough rooms
in initials or perhaps it just takes
too long to carve a heart.
I find a stump to do deep
thinking anymore—weigh promises.
Sometimes I sit spitting shells of sun-
flower seeds and dream
of an attic with chopped oak
beams, an old mirror
and the perfect dust.
Stardust
“…the iron in blood, for instance, was made from a star” (from a newspaper clipping)
I think of it passing through
the heart, how it might ride out
the small explosions, the brief
warmth. On the other side,
the light it left—a wound away
waiting for it to rush out
like an ancient religion.
The story begins
by saying we’re all stardust
and ends with me moving
away at my own celestial speed,
unable to stop sharpening
the unobservable sword
hanging at my side.
First Published in jmww Summer 2008
Bishop, George. Love Scenes. Finishing Line Press, 2009.