In order to view this poem with the line breaks the author intended, we suggest reading it on a computer screen or in the landscape orientation on your phone or tablet.

Amusement
Craig Cotter

I dropped a baby aspirin,
it landed on its side.

Jerry Kitchen and I used to drop coins
on my wood floors as boys

to see if we could get one to land on its side.
We did it once.

*

I finished shaving
2 days ago

and dropped the empty shaving gel can
in a wicker wastebasket

and it landed on its rounded head.
There was nothing else in the basket.

It’s still standing upright.

*

Would you like to have this all tied together
in a new and interesting way?

I wouldn’t mind
but nothing suggests itself.

Bernie rides the Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica pier tonight
with Vivienne.

—
Craig Cotter was born in 1960 in New York and has lived in California since 1986. His poems have appeared in California Quarterly, Chiron Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Court Green, The Gay & Lesbian Review, Great Lakes Review, Hawai’i Review, and Tampa Review. His fourth book of poems is After Lunch with Frank O’Hara.

Know anyone who might appreciate reading Craig’s poem?
Why not share the link to this page?

Have you read these poems:
My Final Facebook Post by Marjorie Power
Putting the Day on Hold by K. A. McGowan

Table of Contents