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How I Read a Book of Poems
Ryan McCarty

I bend corners when I don’t know
what to say. I make boxes
and rings around titles like my arms
holding something beautiful, pulling
it close to my mouth. Some lines
get all marked up just to say stop
flipping and remember moments
like these. Speak it out loud. Notice
how things end and begin.

Single words get circles,
like when I remember verbs
are what hump a heap down the road.
My own lines flap like litter along
the shoulder, wrecking the scenery
but, then again, folks can see I never
sat still with these songs. In my head,
my voice mixes all up with theirs.
We almost share the page.

—
Ryan McCarty is a writer and teacher, living in Ypsilanti, MI. His poems have appeared recently in Coal City Review and Blue Collar Review.

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Have you read these poems:
Because by Craig Cotter
Double Strand by Marjorie Power

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