Thought Partner
The room is full of chairs in rows.
Empty chairs, empty rows.
We have an acronym for that.
Always and ever
alone.
The Museum of Two Dimensions
Open at all hours
and on all sides
Wallless approach
Maximum exposure
Open and empty
access
Keeping My Distance
For what
it’s worth.
Out of
an abundance of
The better
to see you with.
Blocked Caller
My fingers can never move
fast enough
to corral
what I wish to ignore.
Persistence is an illness
afflicting that space
between mind and mindless.
Are you there, God?
It’s me, Private.
Brian Henry’s latest book of poetry is Permanent State (2020). He has translated numerous books from Slovenian, most recently Aleš Šteger’s Burning Tongues: New and Selected Poems (2022). His work has received two NEA grants, the Best Translated Book Award, and a Howard Foundation Fellowship, among other honors.