Two Poems by Tyler Gobble

OH MAGGIE WON’T YOU WANT TO BE MY VALENTINE

Your name paints itself on my water

tower whether you want it to or not

whether the tower is me standing

in your kitchen in my darkest underwear

or is an outline of a half decade of dust

I blew into the sky between us.

Every night your blinds swivel shut.

Every morning you open them.

What in the darkness you afraid to see?

A day is a day no matter what saint

or strange god it’s named for and goodnight

rhymes with some of the soothingest words

in this weirdo language of ours. Every light

in the house is on, Maggie, because we chose

to hug a little longer instead of turning them

off. The fright in your right knee seems minimal.

We’re dancing darling! Sure, maybe the white

of our eyes is destined to disappear. Still maybe

I am a silly thing worth having tonight!

WHAT A TREMENDOUS TIME WE COULD BE HAVING

after Nick Sturm

Open this box of rotini and tell me you love me

in that voice from when you asked me to shower.

The shower curtains I bought when I bought

such things were clear. I hold a soggy slip of paper

listing all that I owe you. A new pot, a bag

of Twizzlers, the deodorant you said I needed.

You owe me this feeling of how boiling pasta

makes me feel sixteen again. Also, 26 dollars.

A crow flies by but it is a shadow of an airplane.

I roll in your sheets until they smell like me instead.

I whisper into your ear but it ends up being your fan

the one that blows every night cooling nothing.

Your hairdryer is an airplane for all I know.

I make you dinner but still fail to get off the ground.