Wyn Cooper

Sort it Out

Sort who or what
is not shot from
who or what
is in fact shot

Sort them
by torment
the heart
a soft target

Predict when
this may
or may not
happen again

Sort storm clouds
from war clouds
from clouds
we live under

divider

 

Drinking the Stars

Petite bubbles rise
in the wine beneath
his nose, before
his eyes, eyes
not used to such
a thing, brain
not trained to
understand
liquid alchemy.

A fresh elixir
enters his mouth
in the cool cellar
of the monastery
without bidding
or prayer, layers
of lush lemon,
carnal almond,
weightless and dense
at once, enough
finish to finish
even a monk
off.

 


Wyn Cooper’s fifth book of poems, Mars Poetica, will be published by White Pine Press in 2018. His recent books are Chaos is the New Calm (BOA Editions, 2010), and Postcards from the Interior (BOA Editions, 2005). His poems, stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, AGNI, The Southern Review, Five Points, Slate, and more than 100 other magazines. His poems are included in 25 anthologies of contemporary poetry, including Poetry: An Introduction, The Mercury Reader, Outsiders, and Ecstatic Occasions, Expedient Forms.