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Christopher Locke
Poetry
North Star  

Dawn, and again the skull 
hums like gray parchment
you could stick your finger
through. Getting up isn’t
an option--it’s the falling
down that wears you out.
What energy’s left is better
spent listening to the grasshopper 
outside your window, wings
clicking like a baseball card
in bicycle spokes. And suddenly
you can see yourself
on that first bike, gliding down 
Bowman Street, at last thrilled 
with your life. Zooming past
parked cars, the city’s metallic
breath finally bearable;
even the bruised hours
of home faded in that moment.
Nothing could stop you, no one
could brace their adult arms 
against you.  And the great shafts of light 
that punched themselves 
between maples became ramps 
to somewhere better and all 
you had to do was hold on
as the bike ascended...

You now stare at the ceiling
and raise your arm, fingers
drawing stars into the cracks.
If only you knew how
to forge the North Star,
sail away from this room
with its night sweats and 
oppressive hours. The grasshopper 
snaps quiet, leaving morning to do 
what it must--break dumbly 
against things made and unmade,
to go on, to exist. 
Writer Bio

Christopher Locke is the author of a collection of poetry titled How to Burn (Adastra Press, 1995). Slipping Under Diamond Light, his second collection, is forthcoming this winter from Clamp Down Press. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in various magazines, including The Literary Review, The Larcom Review, Descant, The Sun, Exquisite Corpse, The Connecticut Review, The Chattahoochee Review, and The Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry. He has received several awards and commendations for his poetry, including a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and a fellowship from Foundacion Valparaiso in Spain. In 2001, he was a recipient in the Robert Penn Warren Awards. He lives in Massachusetts and is a staff writer for the magazine Red Herring.

chrisplocke@hotmail.com
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