Three Poems
Manhood
A humiliated boxcar,
your right foot turns outward
towards the gutter.
the square-toes of angry shoes
you force yourself into, god
and country, working man,
and father, you open the door
to every room with these roles,
stagger into bed each night,
limping.
Your Guardian Angel
"Your Guardian Angel" first appeared in Moonshoot.
Sits behind you on the train,
eating a microwave pizza
and massaging his temples.
he's wondering how long it's been
since he's bothered to tell you
that you aren't fat.
it's not that he doesn't care,
it's just that he's always tired.
everything you do gives him a headache.
you chew the world with an open mouth
he's sick of wiping. he's out of napkins.
you sit inside your body like a three month old
in a recalled car seat. he's afraid to look away
for even one second, certain that if he does
that will be the moment
that you choke.
Chambers
That boy with pistol steel for eyes,
a double-chambered stare-down
with the mirror every morning,
I have been him.
That boy with a body of soft clouds
praying on beaches for an afterlife
of photographs,
I have been him, also.
That hard mastodon tusk of a moment
when first you realize you are alone
in your bedroom, crying
into the fibres of a carpet,
I have been that moment,
searching for the last shard of a pill
under the furniture, reading 1000
words into every moment, a camera
flash, a broken
sentence
a neon light humming break
up songs into the empty cavern
of your street.
Sean Patrick Conlon was born and raised in rural Virginia. The house where Sean grew up was once a Civil War hospital, believed to be haunted. As a boy, Sean delighted in lifting up the carpets to show guests where the blood from wounded soldiers had stained the wooden floorboards.
Over the past two years, his focus on poetry has led to the publication of seven chapbooks. Sean's first full-length book, The Pornography Diaries, (Penmanship Books, 2008) is a collection of poetry discussing the effect of romantic and pornographic media on love and sex in modern society. Sean’s work stands as proof that he still loves to peel back the layers and show where the bloodstains are.