Robert Krut is the author of This Is the Ocean (Bona Fide Books, Winner of the 2012 Melissa Lanitis Gregory Poetry Prize), as well as The Spider Sermons (BlazeVox, 2009). His poems have appeared in numerous journals, both in print and online. A chapbook, Theory of the Walking Big Bang, was published by H_ngm_n Books in 2007; subsequently, he began serving on the press/journal’s Editorial Board. He teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Writing Program and College of Creative Studies, where he has been nominated for the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award four times.
Rush
Hour
In the gas station bathroom, the flickering
light above a metal mirror sends
morse code to get out.
The toilet seat with blade-carved letters
could be initials or could be
an alien anagram sent to give instructions.
Leaving the room, the morning sun
peels off the layers of artificial light—
there’s a guy
in a wheelchair, steering left off Cahuenga
in the middle of rush hour.
He ignores the reflected black SUVs
with their disembodied middle fingers,
ghost-held candelabras—
he’s looking for you.
There’s a playing card in
the spokes of his right wheel,
and it has a message.
In the gas station bathroom, the flickering
light above a metal mirror sends
morse code to get out.
The toilet seat with blade-carved letters
could be initials or could be
an alien anagram sent to give instructions.
Leaving the room, the morning sun
peels off the layers of artificial light—
there’s a guy
in a wheelchair, steering left off Cahuenga
in the middle of rush hour.
He ignores the reflected black SUVs
with their disembodied middle fingers,
ghost-held candelabras—
he’s looking for you.
There’s a playing card in
the spokes of his right wheel,
and it has a message.
© 2014
Robert Krut
Robert Krut was a Featured Poet who read his poetry at the June 2014 Second Sunday Poetry Series
Robert Krut was a Featured Poet who read his poetry at the June 2014 Second Sunday Poetry Series