Stephen Page Teaching English

opening the shades by Stephen Page

Brass Bell has published a poem by Stephen Page in the November Issue of Morning Haku:

Opening the Shades

opening the shades

to let the morning light in —

two sparrows staring

– Stephen Page

Brass Bell is curated by Zee Zahava

Brass Bell

 

A Haunting Poem Fit for Halloween or Day of the Dead or All Souls’ Day

The Night is Long
By Stephen Page

red and green walls
melt from the ceiling
red and brown ducks
paint the windows
a hanging witch
a reminder of Salem
12:00 12:00
the hour of evil
a female nude stands
in shy sexual wanting
cold as stone
from sculptor’s hands
my clothes are scattered
in some semi-order
my room is displaced
in time and location
Pluto’s guitar
her lovely remembrance
strums and plays
A song for daughter
Charlie Chaplin
sits on a shelf
his staring eyes
sadly know all
five o’clock now
the mourning bird sings
a song for me
the death I’ve lived
a week has passed
in eight long hours
a moment ago
it was tomorrow

*This poem first published in “Our Reader’s Quarterly”
Editor: Gene Brill

“Reading Aloud for his Grandson” by Stephen Page

“Reading Aloud for his Grandson” by Stephen Page

as published on RiverLit

read poem here:

Reading Aloud for His Grandson

For the seventh time in a row

Jonathan reads aloud a story

in rhyming couplets

for his grandson

who rests his head

on Jonathan’s arm

and sits with his dirty boots

tucked up under his legs

upon Teresa’s white couch.

It is a tale of a fisherman

who stands upon a muddy shore

of a lake in front of his home

and for months has hauled in

nothing but shoes and key rings

and buckets and bottles.

When he finally lands a fish,

the biggest fish ever caught

from the lake,

and the neighbors cheer,

and the book ends,

Jonathan’s grandson says:

Again.

Again.