Photography © Jennifer Matthews

 

I Am the Walrus and the Carpenter

I was talking of many things
until interrupted by the sound of a tile.

Tiles are falling off my bathroom wall
and hitting the tub with a ceramic clank
audible anywhere in my apartment.
It can’t be a coincidence that my teeth
have been doing the same thing
for thirty years . . .

                                but back to the bathroom:
The under-tissue revealed by a fallen tile
is a primeval, woodsy scurf–
dark, dank, raggedy matter like
what comes into view of a mummy
as its bandages crisp and curl up
when the air hits the tomb,

                      and sometimes a grub or worm,
a preposterous living thing, falls from the wall wrack
and curls in the tub like a black Cheerio
that must be blotted up in the morning before
I shower at the onset of the Age of Pandemics.

 

Harrison Fisher has enjoyed a long hiatus from the writing and marketing of poems which is only recently ending because the world needs more poems, especially by him.

Poet/Photographer Jennifer Matthews’ poetry has been published in Nepal by Pen Himalaya and locally by the Wilderness Retreat Writers Organization, Midway Journal, The Somerville Times, Ibbetson Street Press and Boston Girl Guide. Jennifer was nominated for a poetry award by the Cambridge Arts Council for her book of Poetry Fairy Tales and Misdemeanors. Her songs have been released nationally and internationally and her photography has been used as covers for a number of Ibbetson Street Press poetry books and has been exhibited at The Middle East Restaurant, 1369 Coffeehouses, Sound Bites Restaurant in Somerville and McLean Hospital.