Collin Garrity

Published: December 18th, 2014

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Collin Garrity lives in St Louis, where he spend all his time woodworking. He grew up in Belgium and Germany and came to his passport country to attend Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, where he studied History and Poetry. His work can be found in a number of journals and online at .

The Useless and Dreamlike

We all have a lot
of alarm clock
to live up to

with noone's
expectations higher
than our own

but some
people's way of telling
a joke 

is to tell the truth
as though it was one
and laugh

you're hugging my wife
too long he said
and laughed.

Intrada

The overly beautiful, like tchaikovsky humming,
are caught up in a stare they cannot break

(do not hold against the wind your age, for we
all are light, at times, and will be pushed away)

an angled warning look, the time it takes to brush
the hair aside, the nearby close of day.

prussian blue and open shirts hang empty,
Host, attentive through the window, likely

and wanting to be pretty like the distance,
never in the same way twice.

(to wait unready
is half so unforgivable as to be stayed)

open comes the door below
a move, a movement, steps

calloused, once-first hands shouting
raise high your roofbeams, carpenter, I'm home

singing, we are thankless croons, un-masted
and would shout anything to believe it.

the pumpkin spice small of her back
the gauging of the depth

an approach, an idle, a retreat
and the attack, delayed.

Outstanding Water

the best thing anyone can do for someone else
is say goodbye, breathing antiphonic resolution
to the movement of the small, warring cultures
of ambition and desire-- (reality and the ideal),
disconnected in their abandon-- each keen
to masquerade as their reverse-- affection dressing
down to act like need-- ambition quick to link
prosperity and love. say goodbye,
it is the best thing you can do for someone else.

Cloud-happy With a Chance of Isolating Showers

You don't look a day overcast.
but I will give you a spoonfilled with a sugar cube
to help chase down a taste of your own medicine. 

I’ll sing iron your calico
sweetheart knee-length
obsession with beauty

I’ll sing pat dry the face
of your reservations.
I'll kick you in the shins


and help you get over it.
I'll take care of you
like warm, wool
freudian slippers



I'll teach you lock picking
with a paper clip
I'll teach you soft speaking
with a bigger stick.