Michael Carrino holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College. He is an English lecturer at the State University College at Plattsburgh, New York, where he is co-editor and poetry editor of the Saranac Review. His publications include Some Rescues, (New Poets Series, Inc.) Under This Combustible Sky, (Mellen Poetry Press) and Café Sonata, (Brown Pepper Press), Autumn's Return to the Maple Pavilion (Conestoga Zen Press) as well as individual poems in numerous journals and reviews.
Holden
Don't search for someone authentic,
better someone able to remember
where cookies are hidden, desire
locked away, answers
concerning improvement –
grooming, manners, personality,
ethics, vexing,
unrequited love. Always
linger on ocean beaches
in motel rooms, off season.
Tell strangers everything.
Steel yourself for ennui
guarding all the vaporous children.
Practice – Brush and Paint
White tangled bedsheet, rumpled
red blanket. One reverie –
one once beloved dappled
in silver light, murmurs
a blue name muffled
in green mist. One
thin black brushstroke, a Chinese
character –
ties, bond.
Village `a La Montagne de Charlevoix
Road ice gleams and snow
shivers near the shops, the church.
This blue and rust forest engulfs
their village deep in Quebec.
It is again this season of purple
mountains and beyond –
muted golden sky.