Joseph R. Moore’s work has spanned from cultural criticism to blank verse, with feature articles and essays in online magazines such as Treble and Bright Lights Film Journal, as well as poetry in USF’s Switchback literary journal.
Poems by Joseph R. Moore
The Parlor
the waiter drops off another beer and
I’m thinking paseos and limes
gimme some of that
our sour resolve imprisoned in empty bottles
hidden among the fairy tale floorboards
that disguise
raw sewage and city pipelines
twirling our thumbs every which way
figure skaters in retrograde motion
I’m looking into memory
pools of iris
If we could just let go of the moments
before
starry cocktails eye you suspiciously
from across the bar
a promise of a Manhattan midnight
some sort of Calvin Klein manifesto
New York will never be the same
You dragged me here with draught animals
fit for slaughter
surprise
And the noise goes on
hello Jon
Not tomorrow
hello Joe What’s in that? Ginger?
and on
they are bound to leave
come on children time to go
and on
an arts management major
a rapture of paychecks and misconceptions
tethered to an army of word fodder
shepherded into the western front
patiently awaiting tonight’s banshee ring
in the car ride home
a wall of muted translucence
hollowing out the inner pulp of my wellbeing
Check please.
(leave no tip)
In Water
In water
rabid dogs are led astray by the promise
of lightning and some normative manner
a primordial sluice in tempered glass
An inner creed tying these interstices together
compromising for comfort
on our own insular plane
our own questions embodied
reflecting the refractory disease
an outer dissolve of will and transience in situ
a well-discoursed decadent and misguided ideal
of slow-churning ember and some pillowed ambitions
self-gratified world-turners who made offers
In water