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Conversation
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An hour earlier, he was up letting out cats,
fumbling for the doorknob, one dark opening
upon another, facing the stark phalanx
of trees and explosive star glitter. An hour later,
the phone rings something loose and he’s up again,
or something of him is walking around
the foot of the bed. Drunk with sleep,
he brushes against the door, reaching
for a message that must be dire,
grim, hurtful, at this ungodly hour. He is trying
to believe beyond belief. He only finds the sweep
of air, and almost falls, before juggling the receiver
in his hand still. Telepathy and telekinesis abound
at this moment. The black plastic settles against the drift
of his hearing, the conch-swirl of his ear
fills with an ocean of static. A voice warm
with night asks, “Did I wake you?”
Later he remembers. Later, a different name.
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Writer
Bio
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Walter Bargen has published eight books of poems: Fields of Thenar (Singing Wind Press, 1980), Mysteries in the Public Domain (BkMk Press, UMKC, 1990), Yet Other Waters (Timberline Press, 1990), The Vertical River (Timberline Press, 1995), Rising Water: Reflections on the Year of the Great Flood (Pekitanoui Publications, 1994), At The Dead Center Of Day (BkMk Press, UMKC, 1997), Water Breathing Air (Timberline Press, 1999), and Harmonic Balance (Timberline Press, 2001). His poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous magazines, including American Literary Review, American Letters & Commentary, Beloit Poetry Journal, Denver Quarterly, Georgia Review, International Quarterly, Missouri Review, New Letters, New Novel Review, Pleiades, Poetry Northwest, River Styx, Seneca Review, Sycamore Review, and Witness. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship (1991); winner of the Quarter After Eight Prose Prize (1996), the Hanks Prize (1996), and the Chester H. Jones Foundation poetry prize (1997).
bargenw@missouri.edu
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Other
Pedestal Published Works
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