Martha McCollough

Tipton Poetry Journal – Spring 2022

Difficulty Martha McCollough

1. call it a slammed door a monotone hallway

eye parched by implacable rhythms page: a thorny orchard

we are secretive velvet draped over knobby scaffolding

heart: a flattened supermarket rose

what did you expect

2. why did I seek you out

your mental chess your complex equations your petulant endnotes

one day I’ll be sorry but now you should stop talking

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Tipton Poetry Journal – Spring 2022

3. the day is a casual reader misinterpreting the light

on the table grasses of forgetfulness

identify the source if you can—I’ve been asleep too long

the book half under the bed is wide awake & preaching to the cats

Detective in Night Town Martha McCollough

Pull one thread this burg unwinds. The buildings lean over the street, sneering. Everybody’s got a gat, a tommygun, a derringer. Questions disrupt the churn of the greed-greased machine; gears grind and spark, the money stops circulating. Soon there’s a cops-and-robbers war going, complete with explosions—at the bank, at the whisky warehouse. No one cares about his case anymore, least of all him. He only wants to get out of this town in one piece, make this story come out right. He files a report from the ruins. Hard to say if it’s true: pretty much everyone’s dead by the end.

Martha McCollough is a writer living in Amherst, Massachusetts. She has an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Bear Review, Tammy, Pangyrus, Barrelhouse, Crab Creek Review, and Salamander, among others. Her chapbook, Grandmother Mountain was published by Blue Lyra Press. Martha's poetry collection, Wolf Hat Iron Shoes, is available from Lily Poetry Review Books.

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Tipton Poetry Journal – Spring 2022

Difficulty Martha McCollough

1. call it a slammed door a monotone hallway

eye parched by implacable rhythms page: a thorny orchard

we are secretive velvet draped over knobby scaffolding

heart: a flattened supermarket rose

what did you expect

2. why did I seek you out

your mental chess your complex equations your petulant endnotes

one day I’ll be sorry but now you should stop talking

12

Tipton Poetry Journal – Spring 2022

3. the day is a casual reader misinterpreting the light

on the table grasses of forgetfulness

identify the source if you can—I’ve been asleep too long

the book half under the bed is wide awake & preaching to the cats

Detective in Night Town Martha McCollough

Pull one thread this burg unwinds. The buildings lean over the street, sneering. Everybody’s got a gat, a tommygun, a derringer. Questions disrupt the churn of the greed-greased machine; gears grind and spark, the money stops circulating. Soon there’s a cops-and-robbers war going, complete with explosions—at the bank, at the whisky warehouse. No one cares about his case anymore, least of all him. He only wants to get out of this town in one piece, make this story come out right. He files a report from the ruins. Hard to say if it’s true: pretty much everyone’s dead by the end.

Martha McCollough is a writer living in Amherst, Massachusetts. She has an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Bear Review, Tammy, Pangyrus, Barrelhouse, Crab Creek Review, and Salamander, among others. Her chapbook, Grandmother Mountain was published by Blue Lyra Press. Martha's poetry collection, Wolf Hat Iron Shoes, is available from Lily Poetry Review Books.

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