Mike Callaghan

“Wings and Hold” with Two Poems 

“Wings and Hold”

in on that

out  /  it started out okay  /  that getting out  /  i could out  /  i would out 

out  /  and very out  /  to be out 

out  /  and didn't trust out

and barehanded

an apple can't eat an apple

awake and consenting

reduced < > distilled < > assessed

a critic can’t undo undue

rubbed wet-on-wet


simplicities go complex


fluorescent light you get for free 

at supermarkets and liquor stores

and chinese takeout

no fear of wasting it

being in at night

picking up buts

rainfall < > runoff

Mike Callaghan interrogates the subtlety of gesture and the subtlety of difference in a moment when frameworks of relationships are at once prominently visible and exhaustively hidden. His work has appeared in a number of publications, including ZYZZYVA, Der Greif, Crooked Teeth, Barzakh, Otoliths, Black Mountain Press and The Shanghai Literary Review. He earned an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.