When you walk through
the door of me
which way
are the geese
flying
what hour
do the clocks chime
are they in unison
I always forget
to wind them
straighten the pictures
if the walls stare at you
out of plumb
sandwiches
are waiting
in the kitchen
forgive me
if they are stale
I’ve always known you were coming
just not the day
the epoch
or who
you will say that you are
what name you will call out
when you see me
lurking
all of my
cobwebs
secret panels
groaning pipes
cold spots
scent of lavender
and something
you can’t quite
put your finger on
such a crying shame as
I’ve always counted on
your finger
to point me to
who built this house
how long it has been here
how long
before the roof falls in
and where I hid
the key
is the author of two books: a poetry collection, At the Lake with Heisenberg (Spartan Press, November 2018), and The Aerialist Will Not Be Performing, ekphrastic poems and short fictions after the art of Steven Schroeder (Turning Plow Press, 2020). His writings have appeared or are forthcoming in Chiron Review; Flint Hills Review; Heartland! Poetry of Love, Resistance & Solidarity; I-70 Review; Illya’s Honey; KYSO Flash; MacQueen’s Quinterly; Red River Review; River City Poetry; Shot Glass; The Ekphrastic Review; and the Wichita Broadside Project. His work has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net anthology award; he was a quarter-finalist in the 2018 Nimrod Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry; and he read at the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival and the Chikaskia Literary Festival in 2018 and 2019.
Dean has been a professional musician and worked at The Dallas Morning News. He lives in Augusta, Kansas, and serves as Event coordinator for Epistrophy: An Afternoon of Poetry and Improvised Music held annually in Wichita.
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